


snow

by always happier (penalteaze), renjun_ah



Category: NCT (Band), WayV (Band)
Genre: (20/21 people get killed), (lots of it), Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Alternate Universe - Serial Killers, Blood and Gore, M/M, Murder Mystery, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies, Swearing, Thriller, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-04
Updated: 2019-05-12
Packaged: 2019-11-09 06:23:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 9
Words: 22,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17996588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/penalteaze/pseuds/always%20happier, https://archiveofourown.org/users/renjun_ah/pseuds/renjun_ah
Summary: “Yeah, sure,” Jaehyun huffs. “Someoneaccidentallyfucking bashed Yuta’s head in with a spade, Doyoung.” He runs his hands through his hair and tugs at it. “Fuck!”“Doyoung,” Johnny says calmly, his breathing leveled. “The next town is twenty miles away, there’s no one else here.”Jaehyun nods. “It was someone in the house, one of us killed Yuta.”Alternatively:The group gets snowed in on a ski trip and someone is trying to kill them all.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Us: Let's do something fun!  
> Us: Write a fic in which literally all our faves are getting murdered. 
> 
> So basically 20/21 people in this fic will die, some of it will be very violent. If you don't feel comfortable reading that, we completely understand.
> 
> We want to give **tigger warnings** for Emetophobia, PTSD and Suicide. There will be a lot of blood and strong language.  
> Please don't take this fic too seriously, it's basically just a slightly overdramatic take on a Serial Killer AU (but aren't those always a little overdramatic?).

“Dongyoung Kim, born February first 1996, is that correct?”

Doyoung jerks his head up and down stiffly, his gaze still trained on the desk in front of him. He’s been staring at this desk for the last six hours, knowing they’re watching him through the mirrored window.

The fluorescent light fixed to the ceiling is flickering, it’s been doing that for the past six hours as well. The air conditioning is buzzing quietly, other than that only the breathing of the detective sitting in front of him can be heard.

He is tired, unbelievably tired. He hasn’t slept properly in the past two weeks, hasn’t eaten much either. He needs to take his meds, the ringing in his ears is getting louder and louder. 

“So, mister Kim-”

“Just Doyoung,” Doyoung says sharply. It’s the first thing he’s said ever since… 

“Doyoung,” the detective notes. “Do you want to tell me what happened?” he asks, keeping his voice light and empathetic. Doyoung knows how it goes, he’s seen it all before. In the end, they all don’t give a fuck about you. They just want to know the truth, whichever version of it, doesn’t really matter.

“You won’t believe me anyways,” he replies with a shrug, looking up for the first time to look the detective in the eyes, then he fixes his gaze at the mirror behind the detective, the mirror behind which all of his colleagues are probably watching him, too. 

“We don’t know that until you tell me your story, though,” the detective suggests. He’s trying to come across as caring, it doesn’t work. 

“You’ve read my record,” Doyoung says, looking at the file lying on the table between them. It’s big, at least two inches thick. It holds Doyoung’s entire story. “Nothing I’ll say will convince you of my innocence.”

“I’d like to be the judge of that myself.”

Doyoung sighs, looking at his hands. There’s blood under his fingernails. “Fine.”


	2. Day 0

**_Two weeks ago_ **

**Day 0**

“Jisung, put the football away, you’re going to hurt someone,” Taeyong calls out. He’s holding a clipboard, crossing off names and looking _very_ stressed in his grey parka. Taeyong might complain a lot about being the unofficial mom/manager of their group, but in the end nothing makes him happier than making lists, planning out schedules and most importantly, sticking to them.

Doyoung chuckles. “Calm down Tyong, let him be,” he tries to peek at the list that’s written in Taeyong’s neat handwriting. “How many people are still missing?”

Taeyong runs a hand through his hair, nearly drawing onto his face with the pen he’s holding in it. “Dejun and Chenle,” he reads, checking the list for more. “Kun and well, Jungwoo.” 

“Jungwoo texted me ten minutes ago, he’s on his way,” Doyoung says, feeling his heart flutter at the thought of going on his first vacation with his boyfriend. They’ve been dating for eight months, but haven’t had the time nor money to get some time away from the city yet. 

“And I can see Chenle and Dejun,” Taeyong points at the other end of the parking lot they’ve all been gathering at for the past twenty minutes. “So only Kun’s missing.”

“See, no reason to be so stressed,” Doyoung reasons, gently patting his back. “Kun will probably show up soon and then we can leave.” 

Taeyong gives him a tight smile, still way too stressed to actually enjoy any of it.

They’ve planned the trip for months. Jaehyun was the one who’d originally proposed it and Taeyong and Doyoung had been on board right away. It had taken some convincing, but eventually the entire group had agreed to go on a ski trip together. Two weeks in the mountains, an hour away from the next town and shops, but not too far from the ski area with the fancy resorts they definitely couldn’t afford. It was supposed to be a team-building trip, but pretty much everyone just wanted to have some fun, Doyoung included.

“All the bags are in the bus,” Jaehyun says, coming to a halt next to Taeyong and breathing a bit heavier than usual, probably from carrying all the bags. “Who are we waiting for?”

“Dejun, Chenle, Kun and Jungwoo,” Taeyong counts but points at Dejun and Chenle who are about 50 yards away. “The kids are on their way though.”

“And I can see Jungwoo,” Doyoung says with a smile, looking at the old Volvo that’s just pulled up. “Excuse me guys.” He leaves them behind and walks up to his boyfriend’s car.

“Doie! Hey,” Jungwoo exclaims as soon as he gets out of the car, the smile he’s giving him is taking Doyoung’s breath away. “Sorry I’m a bit late, I came here straight after work.” He gets out of the car and goes to hug Doyoung right away, his long arms enveloping him.  
Eight months and Doyoung is still in awe with him. He doesn’t deserve Jungwoo, he wonders what he must’ve done right in his past life to be able to have Jungwoo in this one.

“Now you’re here, that’s all that matters,” Doyoung says, nuzzling his face into Jungwoo’s neck. He smells incredible, his smell is actually one of the things Doyoung loves most about him. “Did you pack warm enough?” He’s always worried about the younger, he just can’t help it.

Jungwoo grins, “If I didn’t, I’ll just steal your sweaters.” He places a kiss on Doyoung’s cheek and then another one. “I like them better anyways.”

Doyoung gets this warm, fuzzy feeling in his stomach and pulls Jungwoo closer to kiss him properly. Their lips meet and he revels in the touch of Jungwoo’s soft, smooth lips that are slightly parted for him. It kind of feels like kissing clouds, all gentle and fluffy.

“Get a room!” someone, probably Jaemin, shouts at them which makes Jungwoo pull away, his cheeks flushed pink. He looks adorable.

“Come on, let’s get your things on the bus and then save some good seats, I don’t wanna sit in the last row,” he says, taking Jungwoo’s hand. He can’t remember having ever felt this happy before. Two whole weeks, just the two of them.

“Sounds good,” Jungwoo says, pressing another kiss on his cheek before moving towards the bus. “Who’s gonna drive that thing? It’s huge.”

“Johnny has a license for it,” Doyoung explains, raising his hands when Jungwoo looks at him in question. “Don’t ask me, I have no idea either.”

“Everyone!” Taeyong calls. “Time to get on the bus!”

Jisung and Chenle start running before Taeyong has even finished his sentence, pushing each other out of the way to be the first person to get on. 

“Kids,” Jungwoo chuckles while throwing his bag in the storage compartment, turning to Doyoung with a bright smile afterwards. “All done, lets go?” 

Taeyong walks towards them, tapping on his phone screen before holding it to his ear. “Kun’s still not here,” he explains. “He isn’t answering his phone either, should we be worried?” He pulls his bottom lip between his teeth and gnaws at it.

“He’s probably just forgotten, you know how stressed he is,” Doyoung reasons. Between piano lessons, college, his part time job and his girlfriend, Kun doesn’t have much time for them anymore. 

“Yeah, you’re right,” Taeyong sighs uneasily. “But it’s still not like him not to text.”

“How about you get on the bus and I try calling him one more time?” Doyoung suggests. “If he doesn’t show up here in the next fifteen minutes, we have to leave.”

“I don’t wanna leave without him, he’ll miss out on all the fun,” Taeyong says whiny, but gets on the bus a little later nevertheless. 

Kun doesn’t show up. He doesn’t answer their calls or texts either. It’s a bit weird, but soon forgotten as their bus is slowly making its way up the snowy mountains, Taeil’s playlist is playing quietly in the background. 

 

***

 

Three hours later they arrive. The cabin is beautiful, all wooden and built into the mountain. It’s unbelievably big, too. It has to be, Doyoung thinks, after all twenty-one, or well, twenty people are supposed to spend the next two weeks here.

“Wow,” Jungwoo says next to him. “Look at the view,” he’s turned around and looks at the valley in front of them. The sun is shining, illuminating the snow on the pine trees even more, it’s nearly blinding.

“It’s a winter wonderland,” Doyoung comments, sneaking his arm around Jungwoo’s waist. 

“Okay!” Taeyong calls out, Jaehyun is standing next to him. “Rooms!” 

That gets everyone’s attention, even the kids temporarily suspend the snowball fight that had broken out about ten seconds after they got off the bus in order to listen. 

“Jaemin and Jisung, Room 1!” Taeyong exclaims, his voice carrying across the snowy court in front of the cabin. “Chenle and Dejun, Room 2! Donghyuck and Renjun, Room 3-”

“But Taeyong,” Donghyuck whines, interrupting him and coaxing an annoyed groan out of him. 

“What?” Taeyong asks.

“Jeno and I wanted to room together,” Donghyuck explains, displaying his best pout, even crossing his arms. 

“Renjun and I, too!” Jaemin adds, nodding his head. 

“Donghyuck, Jaemin,” Taeyong says tersely, not even looking up from his clipboard. “I won’t let you share a room with your boyfriends, who do you think I am?” 

Doyoung is pretty sure Jaemin mumbles something along the lines of ‘a party pooper’, but Taeyong ignores it, carrying on with the room allocation instead. 

Donghyuck groans loudly and places his head on Jeno’s shoulder, but doesn’t complain any further. 

“Jeno and Mark, Room 4! Yukhei and Yangyang, Room 5! Kunhang and Ten, Room 6! Jungwoo and Doyoung, Room 7!” 

Jungwoo smiles at him and leans in closer. Doyoung gently runs his hand up and down his back and kisses his hair. A room for just the two of them, they’d already decided on the way here that they’d push their beds together and spend as much time as possible just _cuddling_. That had come way too short in the past weeks, with both of them having to study way more for the exams they’ve now finished.

“That’s unfair, they’re boyfriends, too,” Donghyuck calls out, but Taeyong ignores him completely which makes Doyoung chuckle. They’ve both known Donghyuck for more than half of his life and over the past ten years have definitely found that ignoring him is the most effective way of dealing with the sometimes (almost always) moody teenager. 

“Jaehyun and Sicheng, Room 8! Taeil, Yuta and me, Room 9! Johnny and Ku-,” Taeyong stops himself and clears his throat. “Johnny in Room 10, please!” he turns towards Johnny and Yuta. “Maybe you two could room, now that Kun doesn’t seem to be coming?”

They both nod and start shuffling inside the house, dragging their bags behind them. 

Taeyong turns towards him and Jungwoo. “We should get the food and drinks inside first,” he explains. “Can you two help me?”

“Of course,” Jungwoo smiles softly. “What should I carry?”

 

***

 

“The service is horrible up here,” Donghyuck complains later, sitting on the giant leather sofa in the living room. They’ve started a fire and are supposed to start making dinner soon. One by one everyone is showing up downstairs. “Do y’all have a signal?”

“Nope,” Jisung says, popping the ‘p’. “It’s fucking sucky, Barcelona are playing PSG in the Champion’s League right now, I wanna know who’s winning.”

“Language,” Jaemin warns him, pinching his cheek until Jisung swats his hand away, grumbling quietly.

“Who likes football anyways?” Donghyuck adds, picking at his nails. “I just want Instagram.”

“The wifi password is _beautifultime_ ,” Taeyong says, sitting down next to them. “Try if your phone connects to it, it’s not the fastest but good enough.”

Jisung furiously types in the password and exclaims “Ha! It works!” happily a few seconds later. “Oh, fuck off, we’re losing. Kinda wish I hadn’t known now.” 

Doyoung pats his head and chuckles quietly. “Messi will score, trust me.” He doesn’t really know much about football, but Jungwoo likes it and so he’s sat through many mornings of watching 22 men kick a ball on NBC Sports. And from what he’s gathered so far, Messi always scores.

“Messi is way past it,” Jaehyun argues.

“Can we stop talking about football please? What are we going to eat?” Jaemin asks, looking up from his phone. 

“Pasta,” Taeyong explains. “I thought it’s easiest for the first night and will give us enough energy to enjoy tomorrow.”

“Ah, about that,” Jaehyun chimes in. “We might not be able to ski tomorrow actually, the weather forecast is saying there’ll be a snow storm. It might be too dangerous to drive all the way to the ski area.” 

“God damn it,” Jaemin complains. “What the heck are we supposed to do here all day? It’s going to be boring as fuck.”

“Language,” Jisung says, parroting the tone Jaemin had used on him before.

“We’ll see, maybe it’s half as bad,” Jaehyun answers with a small smile. “Just thought I’d warn you.”

“Thank you, Jae,” Taeyong says with a nod. “I think it’s better to be safe than sorry, but we’ll assess the situation tomorrow morning.”

Doyoung doesn’t really care, if he’s being honest. Yeah, he doesn’t hate skiing, but he’s mainly come along on the trip to spend some quality time with his friends and particularly his boyfriend. As long as he’s with Jungwoo, he wouldn’t mind not leaving the cabin for the next two weeks at all.


	3. Day 1

**Day 1**

He wakes up to a pair of soft lips grazing his neck, it tickles a bit, but Doyoung definitely isn’t complaining. It’s the first time in weeks he gets to wake up next to Jungwoo and he’s intending to enjoy every second of it.

He realizes he’s forgotten to close the blinds when he finally peels open his eyes and is blinded by the sun which is bathing the room in a warm orange. Jungwoo is looking at him and he’s _glowing_ , his pale skin looking softer than ever, hair messily falling into his eyes. He’s squinting a little as he smiles at Doyoung.

“Good morning,” Jungwoo gives him a kiss on the cheek, letting his lips linger for a moment. “Did you sleep well?” he asks, his voice still deep and raspy from sleep.

“Yeah,” Doyoung says after a second of hesitation. He doesn’t want to lie to Jungwoo, he really doesn’t, but there are some things he just can’t tell him. It’s getting closer to _that_ time of the year again, the time where Doyoung can barely close his eyes without the images haunting him. He should start taking his sleeping pills again.

“Really?” Jungwoo yawns, snuggling closer, pulling the blanket over the two of them. “You were moving a lot, blanket hogger.”

Doyoung chuckles a bit on edge, “Sorry.” He pulls Jungwoo closer and holds him in his arms before running one hand through his hair, it’s so unbelievably soft. “I hope I didn’t wake you up. It was just a bad dream.”

Jungwoo sighs and leans into the touch, his lips parting a little, making them look even more kissable. “It’s fine,” he says quietly. “Do you remember the dream? Wanna talk about it?”

Doyoung freezes, if only for a millisecond, before relaxing into Jungwoo’s touch again. His boyfriend doesn’t know and Doyoung doesn’t want him to know either. He’s been trying to leave it all behind for more than ten years now. If only it was that easy. 

“I don’t really remember what it was about now,” he lies. He’s gotten good at lying over the years, but with Jungwoo it’s different. Sometimes Doyoung feels like he can see straight through him, he doesn’t know if he finds it reassuring or unsettling. 

He’s pretty sure Jungwoo realizes he’s lying this time as well, but he doesn’t say anything. “Alright,” he mumbles instead, leaving a trail of kisses on Doyoung’s neck.

 

***

 

“What do you wanna do today?” Jungwoo pulls one of Doyoung’s sweaters over his head and smiles at him mischievously. His hair is still wet from the shower they just took together. 

“I don’t know, I think Jaehyun and some of the others wanna go skiing, but I don’t really feel like it,” he says with a fond smile, pulling Jungwoo into a hug. He looks even cuter in his clothes. “What about you?”

“Hmm,” Jungwoo places his chin on Doyoung’s shoulder. “As long as I’m with you, I don’t really care either.”

Doyoung chuckles. “We’re so boring.”

“I guess we are,” Jungwoo agrees, but it doesn’t seem like he’s bothered by it at all. “Oh, look! It’s starting to snow.”

Doyoung turns around to look out of the window and has to blink a few times. “Damn,” he manages after second. The sun is nowhere to be seen anymore, instead snowflakes are flying through the air, a strong breeze carrying them to their destination. They’re getting bigger by the second. 

“Have you ever seen such big snowflakes?” Jungwoo asks in awe, he can’t seem to pull his gaze away from the snow.

“No,” Doyoung says, feeling similarly fascinated. “But it’s beautiful.” 

“I just hope Jaehyun and the others will be careful, they really shouldn’t be outside when it’s snowing this hard.”

“You’re right, maybe they haven’t left yet, we should go check. I don’t feel comfortable with the kids going out today,” he says with a bashful smile. “I kinda feel responsible for them.”

Jungwoo laughs and rubs his back. “You’re such a dad when it comes to them.”

“Hey,” he fakes a pout. “I just want the best for them. I’ve known some of them for more than half their lives.” 

“I know,” Jungwoo kisses his pout away. “Come on, let’s go downstairs.” He takes Doyoung’s hand and leads the out of the room. 

Taeyong and Jaehyun are in the kitchen already and Doyoung can hear some of the others in the living room. “Morning,” he greets them cheerily as he enters kitchen. “What’s for breakfast?”

“Good morning,” Taeyong smiles. “I haven’t really started yet, I just got downstairs, too.”

“Let’s do scrambled eggs then?” Doyoung suggests. “It’s quick and I think everyone likes it.”

“Sure,” Taeyong agrees and moves towards the fridge to get the eggs, he’s quietly humming to the melody of the song that’s playing on the radio, other than that it’s quiet.

“Hey, Jae?” Doyoung asks and Jaehyun makes a sound of acknowledgement, signalling that he’s listening. “I think you should stay in today, seems like the snow storm you were talking about yesterday has arrived.”

“Oh yeah, don’t worry, I was thinking that too,” Jaehyun says, nodding enthusiastically. “Johnny and I wanted to go out later and get some more food, but I definitely don’t want the kids to leave the house today.”

Jungwoo giggles quietly and Doyoung winks at him, gently pressing his hand.

“Especially because temperatures are supposed to drop,” Taeyong chimes in, placing the egg carton on the counter before starting to look for a bowl. “They’re saying that the weather might not calm down until Wednesday.”

“But it’s only Sunday,” Jungwoo says, sounding a bit concerned. “That’s three days away.” Doyoung looks up from the tomatoes he’s started cutting to give him a reassuring smile. He just hopes Jungwoo isn’t too scared, his boyfriend has never liked being held somewhere by circumstances out of his power. They’re quite similar in that way.   
Doyoung remembers the day he met Jungwoo when they got stuck in an elevator together at college and has to smile at the memory.

“Yeah, I know,” Taeyong nods. “That’s the only reason I’m okay with Johnny and Jae leaving the house at all, we need more food in case the storm gets worse.”

Jungwoo draws in a breath and sits down at the kitchen table. “Is there anything I can do to help? Should I come with you guys?” He looks at Jaehyun.   
Doyoung knows it’s selfish, but he really doesn’t want Jungwoo to leave with them, not when he can hear the wind lashing against the windows, making the trees outside the house bend dangerously low.

“I’m not sure if anyone should leave,” he considers. “We have enough food for a few days, a few more if we cook smartly and ration it a bit. I don’t think we should put ourselves in unnecessary danger, it’s safer to stay inside.” 

“You’re right,” Taeyong agrees with a sigh. “Let’s check our supplies after breakfast and then decide what to do. I’m sure the storm will pass by anyways and we’ll be able to actually go skiing tomorrow.”

Doyoung nods, concentrating on the tomatoes again. “Sounds good to me.”

He can hear footsteps coming down the stairs and the excited voices of Donghyuck and Renjun disturbing the peaceful mood.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this is super short, but I'll post the next chapter in about an hour or so, I just need to edit it and then I'll update uwu


	4. Day 2

**Day 2**

The storm didn’t pass by.

They went to bed listening to the howling wind, the snow still hadn’t stopped. The thermometer outside their room had shown them that the temperature had plummeted even lower. It had been a cold night and when Doyoung had woken up and looked out of the window to see that it still hadn’t stopped snowing, he could feel a shiver run down his spine, and not because he was cold. The snow was knee-deep now, making it impossible to see the wheels of their bus.

“I think we’re snowed in,” he had said to Jungwoo, who was still lying in their bed.

 

“So what now?” Doyoung asks, looking at the others. They’ve all gathered in the living room once again to discuss the situation, it’s the only place big enough to hold them all comfortably. It’s the warmest room in the house, too.

“Well there isn't much we can do, is there?” Yuta states matter-of-factly from his place on the sofa between Johnny and Taeil.

“This is the worst vacation ever,” Renjun mumbles under his breath, resting his head on Jaemin’s shoulder who looks at him sympathetically and pets his hair, whispering something in his ear.

“You know, I’d usually rather die than agree with Renjun, but he has a point. We came here to ski and now we can't even leave the house,” Donghyuck pipes up, his voice sounding annoyed.

Doyoung tries hard not to roll his eyes. He knows they are teenagers, but at the same time he isn’t really thrilled about being snowed in either and complaining won’t help anyone. Still, he feels sorry for them, even though he knows it isn’t his fault. The younger ones had been so excited for the actual skiing and hadn’t just wanted to spend some time together like Doyoung.

Taeyong tries to mend the situation. “Let’s check what they’re saying on the news, it has to stop snowing at some point, right?” He sounds about as dejected as Doyoung feels, they had put a lot of effort and money into planning the trip.

It takes a minute until Taeyong finds a news channel. The anchors, a blonde woman in a navy dress and a man in a grey suit are talking about a surfing dog somewhere in Florida and Doyoung has to suppress a groan. Then they pass the word to the weather guy.

“The anticipated strong cold front is moving through the area and will most likely linger for the next few days. Heavy snow showers and strong west winds are anticipated to be reaching their full potential later in the day and not pass for another 48 hours. Local authorities are asking citizens to stay inside and keep warm. The cold front is yet to fully hit, but sadly there have already been casualties.”

Doyoung looks at the others and sighs. “Well, that’s less than great, but we’ll survive,” he tries to sound positive. “We have enough food for a week if we cut down the portion sizes a bit, but no one will starve.”

“Yeah,” Taeyong agrees. “I know this sucks, guys, but let’s make the best out of it.”

He’s about to reach for the remote to turn off the TV again, when the news anchor turns serious, her red lips pulling into a line, making her look sober. “And even more sad news reaching us this morning,” she reads, looking directly into the camera before turning her eyes to the prompter again.

“A twenty three year old college student has been found dead in his downtown apartment,” the news anchor’s picture gets pushed into the corner in favor of showing a clip of police in front of an apartment building that looks oddly familiar. “Police say the student was stabbed multiple times, but a suspect hasn’t been identified yet. They are now asking for help in the case. If you have seen or heard anything suspicious yesterday morning in the downtown area, please contact the local police department or call 911.”

She turns to her co-anchor and they share an empathetic look. “It’s always tragic when young people die,” she says. “Our prayers go out to the family and friends of Kun Qian.” A picture of the boy gets displayed on the screen behind them.

Doyoung’s heart stops, his breath catching in his throat. He doesn’t understand why it takes the picture for him to realize that it’s Kun. Kun, one of his best friends. Kun, who he has known since seventh grade. The picture the news station is displaying is one Ten took of him during their short vacation to California last year. Kun is smiling brightly, his arm slung around Doyoung’s waist. They had so much fun that day.

Doyoung feels bile rising up his throat, he has to gag.

It’s unbelievably quiet in the room, no one is breathing. The news anchors have moved on to the next story by now, but Doyoung can still see Kun’s face on the screen.

Someone, Doyoung is still too paralyzed to check, but he thinks it’s Chenle, screams.

“Oh my god,” Ten cries out before running out of the room. Doyoung can hear him dry heave into the kitchen sink.

Jungwoo grabs Doyoung’s hand and looks at him in sheer horror. Tears are spilling out of his eyes. “What-” he starts, but can’t seem to find his words. Doyoung can only shake his head, his eyes starting to scan the room.

Everyone is a mess. Chenle is sobbing loudly, rocking back and forth in the arms of his cousin Dejun who is trying his best to calm him down.

Johnny gets up, too. He’s crying silently while walking past Doyoung, following Ten into the kitchen.

Doyoung catches a glimpse of Jeno and his heart clenches in his chest. He’s holding both Jaemin and Donghyuck in his arms and keeps shaking his head in disbelief.

He slowly frees himself from Jungwoo’s hands to stand up. He has to do _something, anything_. He has to calm them down, has to check up on Ten, has to make sure Jeno is alright, has to take back control. He’s never felt more helpless in his life.

Taeyong is coming to his senses again at the same time as him, grabbing the remote with an iron clutch and turning off the TV. The screen is black, but Doyoung still can’t stop staring at it. Someone has stabbed Kun. The image of a bloody knife flashes before his eyes. He squeezes them shut, pushing it away. His ears are ringing.  
Kun has been lying dead in his apartment while they were having the time of their lives without him, leaving him behind without a worry. It feels like he himself has been stabbed in the heart.

“Doie?” Jungwoo asks gently, his voice quivering. “Doyoung,” he repeats himself, pressing his shoulder, finally freeing him from his stupor.

“It’s okay, guys,” Taeyong says with a shaky voice, sounding like nothing is okay. “It’s going to be okay.”

“How the fuck can you say that?” Renjun yells. Doyoung flinches, it’s the loudest the room has been ever since the news have broken. “How can you fucking say that?” He storms out of the living room, slamming the door on his way out.

Jaemin is looking at Taeyong apologetically before following his boyfriend. “He doesn’t mean it, he’s just--”

Doyoung lets out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. “We need to keep calm,” he says, his voice loud and clear over the sobs of Chenle that are the only other sound in the room.

_Control, control, control_ , he thinks. _You have to take control, Doyoung._ He can’t ever be helpless again.

 

***

 

An hour later, Doyoung his cradling Chenle in his arms. It’s getting dark outside already, but Chenle still hasn’t calmed down and has been on the verge of hyperventilating multiple times. Doyoung doesn’t know what to do with him, he’s making him breathe into a paper bag, but even that doesn’t seem to help much.

Dejun is speaking to him quietly in Chinese, trying to convince him that things are going to be alright.

Most of the others have left the room, many of them wanting to be alone for some time. Jungwoo has gone to check on Jaemin and Renjun, who haven’t returned after Renjun’s clash with Taeyong. Doyoung wants nothing more than to be with Jungwoo right now and maybe check on Jeno, but he can’t leave Chenle alone.

Taeyong and Jaehyun are sitting on the sofa across from them, talking quietly. Their tears have dried, but they still look absolutely devastated. Jisung is sitting next to them, throwing Chenle anxious glances. He’s handled the situation surprisingly well, but then again, he’s always been strong.

“I think we should try calling home, ask someone what’s going on exactly,” Taeyong says finally.

Doyoung nods. “Maybe we could call his girlfriend? Does anyone have her number?”

“I think I have it,” Jaehyun says, pulling out his phone, then he sighs. “No signal.”

“Ah, don’t worry,” Taeyong says, getting up. “There’s a landline. I guess it’s good that some people are still living in the last decade.” He looks over his shoulder. “I think it’s in the kitchen, are you coming?”

Jaehyun follows him out of the room, scrolling through his contacts to find the number when suddenly the lights turn off.

“What the hell?” Doyoung asks, looking at the others. The fireplace is the only source of light in the room, illuminating their faces in an orange light.

“Have your lights also turned off just now?” someone calls from upstairs.

“Yeah!” someone else answers. “I think the power just cut.”

Doyoung rubs his temples. As if the day hadn’t been bad enough already. “It’s okay,” he mumbles, rubbing Chenle’s back.

Taeyong and Jaehyun return to the living room a few moments later, Jaehyun lighting the way with his phone’s flashlight. “The phone isn’t working. Maybe a tree fell on the power line or something.”

“Fucking hell,” Jisung mumbles under his breath, running his hands through his hair.

“We should still check the fuse box, maybe it’s just a blown fuse,” Doyoung says, not willing to give up just yet. “Does anyone know where it is?”

“No idea,” Taeyong answers. “Probably somewhere in the basement? Should we go check?”

Before anyone can answer, the lights turn on again.

“Thank god,” Doyoung sighs, feeling some of the tension leave his body. Chenle has finally stopped crying and is now blinking slowly, totally exhausted by the events of the day. “How about I make us some tea?” Doyoung suggests, giving Chenle an encouraging smile which earns him a small nod from the younger.

Someone - Donghyuck, he assesses a second later - is stamping down the stairs. He enters the living room with a frown. “The wifi isn’t working,” he explains a bit annoyed. “Probably gotta restart the router.”

“Well then fucking restart the router, Donghyuck,” Taeyong says a bit irritated.

“Where is it?” Donghyuck asks, stressing each syllable in a monotone voice.

“Are you seriously that concerned about the internet, Hyuck?” Taeyong raises his voice. He throws Chenle a look, before continuing, his voice more quiet but stern now. “Kun just fucking died.”

“Oh wow, I wouldn’t have noticed, TY,” Donghyuck answers snippily. “Ever heard of internet calls? I wanna call someone and asks what the fuck is going on.”

Doyoung gets up before Taeyong can answer. He doesn’t want them to fight, they should all stick together right now. “That’s actually a good idea, Hyuck. I’ll go look for the router with you,” he says with a small smile.

“Thanks, Doyoung,” Donghyuck answers sweetly, before sticking his tongue out at Taeyong.

Doyoung pats Taeyong’s back apologetically and mutters, “Teenagers” under his breath before following Donghyuck outside.

“I think the router’s in the basement,” he says, opening the door to the staircase that leads downstairs.

Donghyuck pushes past him and walks down the stairs. “I just hope the power out didn’t fry it,” he says turning on the light once he reaches the end. “That would seriously suck, especially if we’re actually snow-” he stops abruptly, hands flying up to cover his mouth.

“What is it, Hyuck?” Doyoung asks, following him down the stairs immediately. Nothing in his life could have prepared him for what he sees next.

Yuta.

Doyoung pushes Donghyuck out of the way, covering his eyes in the process. “Hyuck,” he says as calmly as he can manage. “Go upstairs and get Jaehyun. Now.”

Donghyuck doesn’t react. His entire body is shaking uncontrollably, he’s sobbing.

“Donghyuck,” Doyoung repeats. “Leave!”

This time, the younger listens, stumbling up the stairs without looking back.

Doyoung is at Yuta’s side seconds later, crouching down next to him, trying to avoid the big pool of blood that’s seeping out of his head and onto the concrete floor. He has to take a deep breath to stop himself from throwing up for the second time today when he sees some of Yuta’s brains.

“Doyoung?” Jaehyun asks from the top of the stairs. “Everything alright? Is Yuta with you?”

“Jae,” Doyoung manages to get out, his voice shaky. “I need you to stay calm, okay?”

“Doyoung, what the fuck is going on? Why is Hyuck crying?” He starts climbing down the stairs.

“Stop!” Doyoung says with urgency. “Please stop, Jae,” he takes a deep breath. “I need you to stay calm, okay?” He doesn’t know how to break it to him. “Yuta is dead.”

“What?” Jaehyun asks, taking the last steps as fast as he can. He stops in his tracks when he sees them. “Oh my god,” he clutches the wall. “Oh my god, Doyoung!”

Doyoung isn’t looking at him, eyes still fixed on Yuta. “I told you to stay calm, Jae, we need to stay calm.” It seems to be the only thing he can say.

_Control, control, control_ , he thinks. _You have to take control, Doyoung._

“What the fuck,” Jaehyun mutters, looking anywhere but at Yuta.

Doyoung closes his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose. He has to _think_. “Okay,” he dictates. “Okay, make sure the kids don’t see this, yes? Send them upstairs or something, lock them in if you have to, let Jungwoo and Ten look after them,” he starts formulating a plan. “Make sure Donghyuck is okay,” he carries on. “And then get Tyong, Johnny, Taeil and Sicheng down here, but warn them.”

Jaehyun nods slowly, his eyes still opened wide. “What about you?”

“I’ll stay with him,” Doyoung answers. “We can’t leave him alone.”

 

***

 

It’s not the first time he’s seeing a dead body, but still Doyoung doesn’t understand how he can be so unfazed by the situation. Yuta is lying in front of him, his head split open, his brains on the floor and all Doyoung can think about is what they’re supposed to do with his body.

“Someone has smashed the router,” Johnny says after inspecting the scene. “The landline has been cut as well.”

“What the fuck does that mean?” Sicheng asks, his eyes never leaving Yuta’s body.

“It means,” Johnny says plainly, “That we can’t call the cops.”

Doyoung shakes his head. “Something isn’t right,” he mumbles quietly.

“No shit, Doyoung,” Johnny huffs. “Yuta is fucking dead.”

“Let’s not fight,” Taeyong says calmly, looking at them one by one. “We need to figure out what to do.”

“We should all try to keep calm,” Doyoung tries to reason as if his heart isn’t still beating out of his chest. He repeats his mantra in his head _Control, control, control_. Images flash before his eyes but he blinks them away. _Keep calm_.

“Yuta was fucking murdered in our basement, I don’t know how I’m supposed to keep calm,” Jaehyun speaks up exasperatedly.

“We don’t know if he was murdered, maybe it was an accident,” Doyoung throws in. He _wants_ it to have been an accident, the other option is too overwhelming to even think about.

“Yeah, sure,” Jaehyun huffs. “Someone _accidentally_ fucking bashed Yuta’s head in with a spade, Doyoung.” He runs his hands through his hair and tugs at it. “Fuck!”

“We don’t know what happened!” Doyoung defends, his voice rising. “And even if it wasn’t an accident, who says it was one of us?” He knows he’s being naive, but he just can’t _believe_ that someone out of their group, the people he’s known for more than half his life, would kill Yuta.

“Doyoung,” Johnny says calmly, his breathing leveled. “The next town is twenty miles away, we’re snowed it. There’s no one else here.”

Jaehyun nods. “It was someone in the house, one of us killed Yuta.”

Doyoung wants to cover his ears, he can’t _think_ and he needs to think. None of this is making any sense. He knows Jaehyun and Johnny are right, but why would anyone kill Yuta?

“Do you think,” Sicheng starts tentatively, stopping himself right away and taking a deep breath through his mouth. “Do you think the same person who killed Kun killed Yuta, too?”

“No,” Doyoung says instantly. “Kun was stabbed, a killer usually doesn’t change his method of killing.”

“Okay, good,” Sicheng nods. “Makes sense.”

The room falls quiet, Doyoung’s legs are starting to hurt from squatting down for so long.

“So what are we gonna do now?” Taeil asks eventually. “We can’t just leave him down here and we have to tell the others, too.”

“The snow,” Taeyong says absentmindedly. “We should bury him in the snow so that the cops can examine his body when we can contact them.”

“Okay, yeah, that’s a good idea,” Johnny agrees. “Who’s gonna help me carry him?”

“I’m not touching him,” Jaehyun says right away. “I’m sorry guys, but I can’t do it.”

“I’ll do it,” Sicheng says firmly, void of any emotion.

Taeyong looks at them, then at the blood on the floor. “Do you think we should leave everything untouched or should I clean the blood away?”

“Leave it,” Johnny answers. “It’s bad enough that we have to remove his body from the crime scene.”

“Okay,” Taeyong nods. “I’ll try telling the kids then.”

“I’ll come with you,” Doyoung says, finally getting up from the floor. He wants to be the person to break the news to Jungwoo. He also has to check up on Donghyuck.

 

***

 

“I just can’t get the image out of my head,” Doyoung says quietly into Jungwoo’s hair. His boyfriend is holding him close.

“I’m so sorry you had to see that, Doie,” he tells him, voice laced with worry. “I can’t even imagine how horrible it must’ve been.”

Doyoung closes his eyes but opens them again seconds later when he sees Yuta’s brains. “I just don’t get why anyone would kill him,” he says, confusion obvious. “Something doesn’t seem right at all.”

“We’ll figure it out,” Jungwoo reassures him. “We’ll figure it out together.”

Doyoung nods. He’s never been more thankful for having Jungwoo in his life. He doesn’t know what he’d do without him right now. Nothing calms him more than his soft voice and his comforting smell.

It takes him hours to fall asleep, but when he finally does, he’s holding Jungwoo in his arms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so who else just wants to hug Chenle and Hyuckie?


	5. Day 3

**Day 3**

Doyoung gets woken up by an ear piercing scream coming from the room next to him. He bolts up, startled, pushing Jungwoo’s head off his chest in the process. They stare at each other, eyes blown wide open although they just woke up.

The screams don’t seem to stop, only getting more hysterical. Doyoung is sure now, that it’s Dejun screaming like his life depends on it. His heart drops and for a second he feels like he’s frozen, then he jumps out of the bed and crosses the short distance to the door.

He opens the door to the hallway, Jungwoo close behind and sees another one fly open at the same time. Donghyuck is looking at him in total horror from the room opposite of Chenle and Dejun’s, proving to Doyoung that he isn’t panicking for no reason. Something must have happened.

“Stay in your room,” he says to Donghyuck in a warning tone before grabbing a water bottle and holding it like a baseball bat, moving into the hallway with caution. He knows that this bottle won’t do shit if there’s actually a killer in the room next door, but he needs something to hold on to, something to protect him from the knife.

“Please be careful, Doyoung,” Jungwoo whispers, his hand reaching for the hem of Doyoung’s shirt, trying to hold him back. 

Doyoung looks ahead and sees Johnny walk towards the room from the other end of the hallway. He’s signaling for everyone to be quiet, they arrive in front of the door at the same time. Doyoung breathes in shakily as he slowly opens the door, the water bottle still in his hand.

Dejun’s screams don’t stop once he’s finally in sight and Doyoung wants to scream as well. Maybe he does. He doesn’t feel the bottle leave the grip of his fingers, but hears it shatter into a million pieces on the hardwood floor.

Dejun is clutching Chenle’s bloody and lifeless body to his chest, Doyoung feels the urge to vomit. Chenle’s blood is all over Dejun’s striped sleepshirt, tainting it bright red. Chenle must have died in the last hour, his limbs still mobile. There’s _so_ much blood. Some of it has seeped through the mattress, dripping onto the hardwood floor underneath the bed.

He sees a big puddle of blood on the kitchen floor, covering the white tiles. Blood gargles in her throat while she’s trying to breathe, then she’s dead. The knife drops to the floor, Doyoung screams. 

He screams now, too, pushing Jungwoo as hard as he can, away from the blood, away from the screams, just away. 

Jungwoo tries to catch his hands, calm him down, but he hasn’t seen them yet, he has no idea what has happened in the room next door. “You need to get away from here, Jungwoo. Make sure no one else sees this, we need to protect the kids,” Doyoung mutters, words leaving his mouth without him having any real control over them.

Johnny pushes past him, pulling Dejun away from Chenle’s body, holding him tightly as Dejun struggles against his strong embrace.

“Let go of me! Let me go!” he screams, kicking and thrashing around in Johnny’s hold. He looks absolutely lunatic, blood all over his hands and body, eyes filled with tears. His voice is hoarse from all the screaming.

“You need to stop screaming,” Doyoung hears Johnny say, but his focus is back on Jungwoo.

“Please go, I don’t want you to see this, no one should ever see this, don’t you understand?”

“Doyoung,” Jungwoo says soothingly. “You need to calm down, come on, breathe with me, in and out, slowly,” he instructs him, pushing Doyoung gently until he sits down on the floor. He tries to concentrate on his breathing, tries to regain control. _Control, control, control._

All of this cannot be happening, not again.

“What the fuck?” Donghyuck screams when he sees Chenle. “What the hell?” he stares at them and then at Chenle again. A second later he’s emptying his stomach onto the hallway floor.

Doyoung sighs in irritation, he had _told him_ to fucking stay in his room. Why is no one listening to him?

He gets up, legs shaky, but finally in _control_ again. Jungwoo is still staring at him with concern in his eyes, but Doyoung nods at him a reassuringly, signaling that he’s recovered from his shock. 

He pulls the door close after him and blocks it with his body, not wanting anyone else to see the gruesome scene inside.

“He has to wake up,” Dejun wails staring at Chenle, tears running down his cheeks. Then he switches to Chinese and Doyoung can no longer understand him.

“What do we do?” he asks Johnny desperately, still completely overwhelmed. Someone is knocking at the door, but Doyoung stays firm, calling out loudly, “Keep out!”

“We need to get Dejun out of here,” Johnny orders surprisingly calm, still holding the sobbing boy.

“Okay,” Doyoung agrees, running a hand through his hair and pulling hard. He _needs_ to snap out of this _now_. “Yes, you’re right.”

“Alright,” Johnny says. “We need to change his clothes, the others can’t see him like this, it’s disgusting.” 

Doyoung can’t believe that Johnny can even form a straight thought, he’s never been more thankful to be friends with the elder. For once in his life he just can’t seem to take control, make sure everything is okay. For once in his life he is relying on someone else.

 

***

 

“Where is Taeyong?” Doyoung asks, looking at the others in the living room. His heartbeat speeds up. “Where the fuck is he?” The fear in his voice is obvious. 

“He’s upstairs,” Jaehyun says calmly, placing a hand on Doyoung’s shoulder. “He’s trying to clean the floor, I couldn’t get him to stop, I think we just need to let him be.”

Doyoung feels the weight of the entire world leave his shoulders. Taeyong is okay, no one else has died.

“I’m sorry,” he mumbles, staring at the ground. “I don’t know what’s going on with me.”

“It’s fine,” Jaehyun says, looking at the others in the room, too. “We can’t expect anyone to be okay right now,” he rubs his eyes and swallows hard. He’s always liked Chenle the most, Doyoung is once again reminded of it when he sees the tears in Jaehyun’s eyes.

They’re all quiet for a minute, then Sicheng speaks up. “The murderer stabbed him, right?” 

Doyoung looks up in disgust. “What does it matter? He’s dead, whoever did it killed a fucking child.”

Jungwoo runs his hand over Doyoung’s back reassuringly, trying to calm him down a little. The last thing they need right now is a fight.

“It matters,” Sicheng says quietly, “Because _you_ said a killer doesn’t change his method of killing, but Kun was stabbed, too.”

Doyoung is taken aback. He hadn’t made that connection yet and feels cold sweat run down his back when he realizes that Sicheng is right. 

“You think the same person who killed Chenle killed Kun, too?” Jungwoo asks in shock, eyes scanning everyone else in the room to gauge their reactions.

“Yes,” Sicheng says plainly. “I also think Doyoung no longer has _any_ reason to believe that this was a fucking accident.” 

Doyoung can feel Sicheng’s eyes on him and feels his ears turn red in embarrassment, he’s still looking at the ground. “But why?” he asks, more to himself than any of the others. Why would anyone kill Kun, Yuta and most of all Chenle. Chenle who has never wronged anyone in his life, who loved them all so dearly. It doesn’t make any sense. Doyoung _needs_ it to make sense, needs to find an explanation, needs to figure out what the hell is happening to them.

_It’s all your fault,_ the voice in his head yells at him. _You made me do it, Dongyoung, you-_ , he covers his ears with his hands, trying to drown out the voice, but it keeps getting louder. _You made me do it, you killed her, you are-_

“Doyoungie, are you okay?” Jungwoo asks, his eyes filled with worry as he gently pulls Doyoung’s hands off his ears.

“I don’t know,” Doyoung whispers, his heart beating out of his chest. He’s losing control and he doesn’t know what to do about it. The memories keep coming back, he tried so hard to forget.

“It’s going to be okay,” Jungwoo whispers back, pulling Doyoung closer, an arm slung around his waist. “Don’t worry, I’m here.”

“Doyoung is right,” Johnny says loudly, gaining everyone’s attention. “Why would anyone kill them? It doesn’t make any sense.”

“Does it matter, though?” Sicheng questions, his brows knitting together. “Does the why matter when there are two dead people buried outside and someone in here has killed them?”

“Of course it matters,” Jaehyun snaps, “If we find the reason we’re one step closer to finding the killer.”

Ten laughs emotionless, staring at Jaehyun. “Do you really think there is a reason? There is none, who would kill a child except for a crazy person. And what will you do when you find the killer?” he asks, “Kill him, too? This is all so fucking stupid.”

“Well, what the fuck else are we supposed to do? Sit here and wait if he decides to kill another one of us?” Jaehyun hisses. “I’d rather do _something_ , I don’t know what, but literally _anything_ is better than waiting to be stabbed by a fucking psycho.”

Doyoung hears the knife slash through her throat, hear her last desperate scream before she can’t say anything anymore. A splash of blood lands on his face and slowly runs down his cheek.

“Let’s not fight, guys,” Jungwoo says, pulling Doyoung out of his thoughts again. He’s still holding Doyoung’s hand, drawing circles on the back of it with his thumb. “If we fight it’ll only get worse. We need to stick together and look out for each other.”

“Yeah,” Taeil agrees, speaking up for the first time. “Fighting won’t help anyone.”

Doyoung swallows hard before finally looking up. “We need to keep it together, guys,” he says and doesn’t know if he’s talking to himself or the others. “We need to make sure the kids are okay, no one else can die.”

Jaehyun nods. “Someone should be with them at all times,” he suggests when they all hear a pair of feet come down the stairs. 

It’s Jaemin, barging into the living room, a scowl on his face. “So is anyone going to tell us what the fuck is going on?” he demands angrily, staring daggers at everyone in the room. “Taeyong is scrubbing the floor like a lunatic, Dejun is nowhere to be found, Jisung is crying because his best friend just fucking died and no one is talking to us!” He takes a deep breath before carrying on, “I’m eighteen years old, I’m not a baby, don’t act like we don’t know what is happening.”

“Dejun is not with you?” Doyoung asks alarmed, his voice shrill. He hasn’t gotten much else from Jaemin’s outburst. Dejun _should_ be with them, he left him with Yangyang and Yukhei, hoping they would understand him. 

“No, I thought he was down here with you guys?” Jaemin answers, scanning the room for Dejun who isn’t there. He pales when he realizes it. “What the fuck? Where is he?”

Jaehyun gets up. “It’s okay, don’t worry, we’ll find him,” he says, looking at everyone in the room. “Who has seen him last?”

Doyoung gets up, walking towards the stairs already, looking over his shoulder to explain. “I left him with Yangyang and Yukhei, he must be with them.” He _has_ to be with them, otherwise Doyoung is going to lose his mind. 

“Where is he?” he asks, after barging into Yukhei and Yangyang’s room and only finding the two of them in there. He’s out of breath from running up the stairs so quickly, still hoping for Dejun to exit the bathroom any second.

 

***

 

In the next hour they turn the house upside down, but Dejun doesn’t show up. Doyoung himself searches every single room, not trusting the others to do a thorough enough job at trying to find him, but there’s no trace of him.

“What do we do?” he asks, his voice raising higher in fear. He looks at Jungwoo who’s with him in the living room. “Where the hell is he?” 

“I don’t know, Doie,” Jungwoo says quietly, his forehead furrowed in worry. “But we’ll find him, he can’t just have vanished, it’s still snowing outside, there’s no way he could’ve just left.”

“Outside!” Doyoung exclaims, looking at Ten, the only other person in the room. “Has anyone looked outside yet? Maybe he wanted to be with Chenle.”

“But it’s way too cold to stay outside for so long,” Jungwoo argues, rubbing his thighs, shivering a bit as he thinks of the cold. “And it’s also getting dark now.”

“I’ll go check,” Ten announces, standing up. “It doesn’t hurt to make sure.”

“Yes, okay,” Doyoung nods, playing with his lip. “But be careful, Jungwoo is right, it’s cold!”

“Don’t worry, I’ll be quick,” Ten says before leaving the room.

“Hopefully we’ll find him soon,” Doyoung mumbles into Jungwoo’s shoulder. “I don’t know what I would tell his parents otherwise. Oh my god, we can’t even tell Chenle’s parents.” He feels like crying, thinking about how his family must think he’s having the best time with his friends while he’s actually buried outside, tainting the snow red.

“You won’t have to tell them, Doie. The storm will end and then police will take care of everything, it’s all going to be fine, I promise.” 

“I love you,” Doyoung whispers quietly. “I don’t think I could get through this without you.”

Jungwoo gently caresses his cheek, kissing his hair. “I love you, too.”

“I’ve found him,” Ten says, void of any emotion, his whole body is shaking, snowflakes not yet melted in his hair.

“Good!” Doyoung exclaims relieved. “How is he? You should get him inside, he’s going to freeze to death out there.”

“Doyoung,” Ten explains, holding him back when he wants to run outside to get Dejun. “He’s dead.”

 

***

 

“He thought it was his fault,” Yukhei says, rocking back and forth while clutching his chest. “He said Chenle was snoring so loudly so he listened to music with his headphones to fall asleep, he didn’t hear anything, he thought it was all his fault.” 

“He just wanted to be alone with him, he wanted to apologize,” Yangyang cries. “He made us promise we wouldn’t tell on him, he was scared you’d blame him.”

“We should’ve said something, I’m so sorry, this is all our fault,” Yukhei mumbles, not making eye contact with anyone in the room.

“It’s not your fault,” Mark says firmly. Doyoung hasn’t seen him since yesterday night when Mark and Jeno had locked themselves in their room, only coming out again after Chenle’s body was found. “It’s not your fault that someone is fucking killing us.”

“Mark is right,” Jaehyun insists. “No one is to blame for this besides the killer.”

“What are we going to do?” Donghyuck asks, looking at his friends. His eyes are puffy from all the crying, Doyoung feels so sorry for him. 

“There’s nothing we can do,” Johnny says, “Besides staying together and looking out for one another. No one should be alone.”

Donghyuck stares at him in disbelief. “What do you mean, there’s nothing we can do? We can’t just wait here for him to kill us all.”

“Hey now,” Doyoung says calmly, somewhere in the last hour he’s regained his control, the meds finally kicking in. “No one else is going to die.”

“You can’t honestly believe that,” Mark laughs dryly. “Four of us have died in the past three days, Doyoung. What makes you think the killer will just stop?” He looks at every single person in the room. “One of you killed my friends today, I’m not stupid enough to believe that I might not be the next one.”

“Guys!” Taeyong exclaims. “This isn’t getting us anywhere, we need to keep calm and as Johnny said, watch out for each other. Don’t start throwing accusations around.”

“Well, I didn’t fucking kill them, Taeyong,” Mark retorts, sarcasm dripping from his voice. “So it must have been one of you all, that’s just logic.” 

Doyoung wants to slap him, nothing about their situation is worth being sarcastic about.

“Yeah, Mark, I didn’t kill them either,” Jaemin groans, rolling his eyes. “I’m pretty sure no one in this room would say they did it if you asked them. So stop being a fucking brat and learn to deal with it.”

“No fighting!” Doyoung says strictly. “Can you not listen to us this one time? I know you all want to act like you’ve got your shit together, but we are responsible for you, we need to make sure you’re okay.”

“No one asked you to,” Jaemin scoffs.

 

***

 

“I’m not even sure it’s just one person,” Doyoung says later, finally alone with Jungwoo. They’re sitting on the bed, trying to make sense of the day. “Like I said, a murderer usually doesn’t just change his method, but Kun and Chenle were... stabbed, Yuta’s head was smashed in and Dejun was strangled. This makes absolutely no sense.”

“So you think it’s more than one person?” Jungwoo asks, taking a sip of water afterwards.

“I don’t know,” Doyoung admits. “But something is _very_ off.”

“I believe Mark when he says he hasn’t done it,” Jungwoo says sincerely, playing with his fingers. “He was together with Jeno the entire time, he couldn’t have killed them.”

“Taeyong, Jaehyun and Jisung were with me when Yuta was killed and I highly doubt it was Donghyuck, he was way too shocked when we found him,” Doyoung adds. “That leaves ten people who could’ve done it.”

“Do you really think Jeno would kill anyone?” Jungwoo asks surprised.

“No!” Doyoung says quickly, “Definitely not. Nine people then. Yangyang, Jaemin, Renjun, Kunhang, Yukhei, Sicheng, Ten, Johnny or Taeil. One of them did it.”

“I don’t want any of them to be the killer,” Jungwoo admits with a sigh. “None of them seem like they just killed four people, too. Don’t you think you’d kinda notice?”

“I think it’s Ten,” Doyoung says plainly. There’s no reason denying it, he can’t see any of the kids being able to go through with something like that. Ten was also the first person to find Dejun, he could’ve easily strangled him when he found him.

“Ten?” Jungwoo asks confused. “But why?”

“I don’t think we’ll ever understand why,” Doyoung mumbles quietly. Is there ever a reason for killing someone? He doesn’t think so.

“Okay, fair point,” his boyfriend nods. “So then we should keep an eye on him tomorrow, maybe he’ll reveal himself.”

“We should also lock the door,” Doyoung suggests. “That way we won’t have to stay up all night worrying about the killer.”

“Yeah,” Jungwoo says. “The others should do that, too.”

When Jungwoo goes to the bathroom to brush his teeth, Doyoung takes another pill. He just wants to sleep peacefully tonight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're sorry this took so long, both of us are kinda busy right now with exams and/or fics we have to write for the Dreamies Fic Fest.
> 
> We still hope you enjoyed this chapter. Thank you for reading ❤️


	6. Day 4

**Day 4**

“Morning,” Taeyong mumbles as he walks into the kitchen, his voice still scratchy and eyes puffy.

Doyoung and Jungwoo look up from the breakfast they’ve been making, French toast, because for some reason they still have way too many eggs in the fridge that have to be used up before they go out of date.

“Hey,” Jungwoo mumbles, a tired smile on his face. Neither of them had slept particularly well, always anticipating another scream to pierce through the night, but it never came. Even Doyoung’s pills hadn’t helped with that. “Slept well?”

Taeyong laughs dryly, pulling at his frizzy hair. “Nah, haven’t had a worse night since- yesterday I guess,” he sighs heavily. “What are you making, can I help?”

Doyoung shakes his head, “That’s fine, we’re nearly done anyways. We’re making French toast.” He looks back at the batter and tries to breathe a little easier. Maybe this nightmare is finally over, maybe they’ll all be okay now. He hopes for nothing more, he craves normalcy, craves _control_.

“Okay, thank you,” Taeyong smiles. “I’ll set the table then.” He takes out seventeen plates and for a moment he can just look at them, lip trembling slightly. Doyoung wouldn’t have noticed if he hadn’t known Taeyong for so long. 

Four plates stay in the cupboard. Doyoung swallows hard.

Jungwoo gnaws on his lip, holding himself with his arms. When Taeyong has left the room he looks at Doyoung. “I’m not sure I’ll be able to eat,” he mumbles.

He looks so small all of a sudden, so lost. Doyoung feels horrible guilt bubble up in his stomach, if it wasn’t for him, Jungwoo would’ve never come with them. He would’ve stayed at home in his tiny flat and had two stressful yet rewarding weeks. Doyoung had asked him again and again to come with until his boyfriend had finally given in.

His hand gently reaches for Jungwoo’s cheek, he runs his thumb over it and tries his best to give him an encouraging smile. “Everything will be okay.”

He’s glad that he has finally found the calmness within himself again, yesterday had been an absolute mess. He hadn’t felt that helpless in a long time, hadn’t been that overwhelmed maybe ever. Today he’s got it under control again, probably thanks to whatever his doctor had once prescribed him.

“I hope so, I really-” Jungwoo starts but is interrupted by someone entering the kitchen. 

It’s Renjun. His hair is sticking out, the pattern of his pillow still visible on his cheeks. “Hey,” he croaks, squinting a bit to adjust to the bright light in the kitchen. 

“Hey,” Doyoung smiles before returning to the food on the stove. “Slept well?” 

Renjun makes a noise that Doyoung can’t quite class, it could be both a yes and a no. He stretches his arms over his head and his joints crack. “I guess,” he finally mumbles. It stays quiet in the kitchen for a few moments, then Renjun asks, “Hey, where’s Hyuck?” 

“Where should he be?” Jungwoo asks confused, eyebrows drawn together in a frown. 

“Well, he isn’t in his bed anymore so I figured he must’ve gone downstairs already,” Renjun shrugs. 

Doyoung’s heart turns to ice, he can feel it get colder by the second until it becomes a heavy block in his chest that presses on his throat and makes him want to throw up. “What do you mean he wasn’t in his bed?” He turns off the stove, the food doesn’t matter anymore. 

Renjun pales, looking from Jungwoo to Doyoung and back. “I don’t know,” he laughs nervously. “He’s probably just gone to Jeno if he isn’t down here, right?” He looks for assurance in Doyoung’s eyes, but when he doesn’t get any, his fingers start to tremble. 

Jungwoo gets up and calmly says, “Let’s go look, just to be sure.” 

Doyoung is thankful for him once again, but he mentally slaps himself, too. He needs to stop going into total lockdown whenever something bad happens. This is not how he survived the last ten years. He got through them thanks to his iron hard control and self-discipline. He needs that now more than ever. 

Renjun nods stiffly. “He’s fine, right?” he asks quietly, but doesn’t get an answer. He leads them all up the stairs and directly goes to Jeno and Mark’s room, knocking twice.

The door is open, Doyoung follows Renjun and looks around, a foolish hope still left that he’ll find Donghyuck and Jeno cuddled up in bed and will have to scold them. But Jeno’s bed is empty. The toilet is flushed, Doyoung can hear water running, then Jeno is standing in the room. 

“What are you doing here?” he asks, confused and a bit annoyed. 

“Jeno where’s Hyuck?” Renjun asks, voice urgent. “Was he with you last night?” 

“No?” the frown on Jeno’s face just grows more prominent. “Why are you asking?”

He doesn’t get an answer, not from Doyoung at least, as he turns around and knocks at the next door. Jaemin opens it, yawning at Doyoung’s face. “Morning,” he mumbles, running a hand through his pink hair. “What can I do for you?” 

“Hyuck isn’t with you by any chance?” Doyoung gets straight to the point, he can feel the anxiety rising in his chest. This isn’t good, he knew as soon as Renjun said Donghyuck was missing that something was wrong. 

He doesn’t even wait for Jaemin to answer, knocking at the next door already, but no one has seen Donghyuck. 

“Hyuckie?” Doyoung calls loudly, not caring if he’s waking anyone up. “Donghyuck are you here somewhere?” He opens the door to the communal bathroom, that’s used by the boys who don’t have an en suite, but it’s empty. 

“Donghyuck this isn’t funny! Answer please,” Renjun joins him, his voice a little higher than usual. He’s scared, really fucking scared and he should be, Doyoung supposes. Something must have happened. 

He skips down the stairs and looks in the living room, in the kitchen, hell, he even checks the basement, Jungwoo close behind him. 

“What’s wrong?” Taeyong asks when they get to the dining room. “What happened?”

“We can’t find Donghyuck anywhere,” Jungwoo says breathlessly. “We just can’t find him.” Tears are brimming his eyes. 

Taeyong tenses. “Maybe he’s just in the bathroom, have you checked everywhere?” he asks, trying his best to sound reasonable. 

“We have, he isn’t here,” Doyoung says coldly. Donghyuck isn’t here, he isn’t in the house.

“Okay.” Taeyong looks around. “Where should he be?” 

“I’ll look outside,” Doyoung says, pulling on boots that aren’t his own, not caring that he’s still in his pjs and it’s freezing outside. 

“Doyoung, that’s too cold,” Jungwoo explains. “You need to put on a jacket.”

“Donghyuck is gone,” Doyoung says, voice shaking. “I don’t give a fuck if it’s cold.”

Donghyuck isn’t outside, or Doyoung doesn’t find him at least. When he returns inside, he can’t feel the tips of his fingers, his entire body is shaking uncontrollably, but he doesn’t care, not when he still hasn’t found him.

“Mark and Yukhei are gone, too,” is the first thing Taeyong says when he sees Doyoung. “They aren’t in their rooms, no one has seen them.”

“Where the fuck are they?” Doyoung asks desperately. “They can’t just vanish into thin air, they must be _somewhere_.”

“Let’s check their rooms again,” Taeyong suggests, but someone else has thought of that already.

Jaemin comes running down the stairs, nearly tripping when he skips the last step. His cheeks are burning red and keeps on shaking his head. “They’ve left,” he says. “They left,” he repeats. 

“Left?” Doyoung asks. 

“They fucking ran in the middle of the night,” Jaemin explains. “Jeno just found a letter in Hyuck’s bed, he said they’re trying to get help.”

“No,” Doyoung says, absolutely horrified. “No, it’s way too cold, they’ll fre-”

Taeyong clasps a hand over his mouth before he can finish the sentence. “Where’s the letter, Jaemin?” he asks. “Are you sure Donghyuck wrote it?”

“I didn’t read it, Jeno didn’t want me to,” he says. “But he’s very upset, so I guess it’s real.”

 _Jeno_. 

Doyoung doesn’t spare Taeyong or Jaemin another look, already on his way upstairs. He sees Renjun pacing up and down the corridor, Jungwoo close by, watching him with a worried frown. When he sees Doyoung his eyebrows raise in question.

Doyoung just shakes his head, signalling that he hasn’t found them. “Jeno?” he mouths quietly.

“He’s in his room,” Jungwoo whispers before turning back to Renjun, talking quietly to him to calm him down. 

Jeno is sitting on the edge of his bed, staring at the bed at the other side of the room, Mark’s bed. He’s holding the letter in his hand, it’s shaking, Jeno obviously trying to hold in the tears and emotions.

“Jeno-yah,” Doyoung coos quietly once he’s sitting next to him. Jeno looks at him and tears spill from his eyes, he leans his head against Doyoung’s shoulder and sobs quietly. “Hey, it’s going to be okay,” Doyoung murmurs although he knows that nothing is going to be okay. He puts an arm around Jeno’s small waist and tries to comfort him by running his hand up and down his side. 

“They-” Jeno hiccoughs, “They’re never going to survive this. It’s too cold.” He cries and cries, clenching his hand around the letter. “Why didn’t he tell me? I would’ve come with him.” 

Doyoung swallows hard, a hand is squeezing his heart and doesn’t let go. 

Seeing Jeno like this, so devastated- he can’t handle it. He’s always liked Jeno a little more than all the others and he’s never made a secret out of it. Ever since they’ve known each other, Jeno had _adored_ him. In the beginning Doyoung had found it cute, although a little annoying, but with time he had come to adore the younger just as much. Jeno is special, he’s the little brother Doyoung never had but had always wished for, especially after his parents had died. 

He loves Jeno, he loves him so much and he can’t bear to see him in pain. 

“I don’t know,” Doyoung says helplessly. Jeno just doesn’t stop crying. “I’m so sorry, I don’t know.” 

“This was never supposed to happen,” Jeno cries and only buries his head further into Doyoung’s neck when the door opens. Tears drop onto his skin, making it wet and sticky. 

Taeyong is looking at them, pointing at the letter in Jeno’s hand, but Doyoung can only shake his head. Taeyong understands and leaves them alone again. 

“Jeno?” Doyoung asks gently, trying to make him look at him. “What does the letter say? Can I read it?” He needs to know exactly what Donghyuck had said, needs to know where they went. 

“I don’t-” Jeno stops, wiping away the tears that just keep on coming. “I don’t think you want to read it,” he says finally.

“I promise I won’t tell anyone what’s in it, you know I would never do that, I just need to know if he gave some sort of hint.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Jeno says weakly, before handing him the letter and watching him with big eyes.

Doyoung takes it. It’s unmistakably Donghyuck’s scrawly handwriting, although he can see that the younger put in some effort to make it look neater. The paper is wet in some places, probably from Jeno’s tears. 

 

_Jeno,_

_I guess by now you know that we’ve left. We just couldn’t take it anymore. I’m so sorry, but I couldn’t tell you. You would’ve talked to Doyoung and he wouldn’t have understood or allowed it._

_I can’t stay in this house, I need to get away from here. I don’t want to end like Yuta or Chenle._

_I’ll get help, I promise we’ll get you out of there and everything will be okay. Please take care, my love, I’ll be back soon, so promise me you’ll still be waiting for me when I come back._

_I love you so much, never forget that, Hyuck_

 

It feels like a kick to his stomach. He feels so, so guilty. Is he the reason for all of this pain Jeno is feeling? 

He feels even guiltier however about the fact that he’s glad they didn’t tell Jeno. Otherwise Jeno would’ve left with them, in the middle of the night without a word. He can’t lose Jeno. 

He pulls the younger into a tight hug and just holds him. Reluctantly Jeno hugs him back. “It’ll be okay,” Doyoung mumbles into his hair.

 

***

 

“There’s no way they’re still alive,” Sicheng says with empty eyes. He stares at the others in the room and slowly shakes his head.

Doyoung wonders when they all got so comfortable with discussing death, when it turned from absolutely horrifying to somewhat normal. Maybe when they found out Kun had been killed, maybe when they carried Yuta upstairs and buried him in the snow, maybe when they found Chenle in his bed, maybe it’s just happening now, now that most probably three more of them have died.

“Don’t say that, don’t just give up on them,” Jungwoo exclaims, agitated. Doyoung takes his hand and strokes it soothingly. 

“He’s right though,” Johnny says matter-of-factly, “The chances aren’t high, the walk to the next town is way too long and it’ll take even longer with all the snow.” 

“There’s a chance they’re still alive, we should do everything to help them,” Taeyong reasons. “God! How could they be so stupid?” 

“I’ll go looking for them, I don’t care how dangerous it is, if they’re still alive I’d never forgive myself for leaving them out there to die,” Jungwoo says firmly, a challenging look on his face, as if he’s daring the others to disagree.

“Jungwoo,” Doyoung mutters quietly, desperately, “Please, you can’t, it’s too cold.”

“I’ll come with you,” Johnny announces with resolution.

Doyoung shakes his head. “No, guys please, you could-”

“Me too, I’ll go search for them,” Jaehyun says, interrupting Doyoung who feels despair creep into his every bone. 

The snowstorm is still raging outside, though a little weaker than the days before. It’s still way too cold to stay outside for too long. They could get lost in the snow, they could get buried by an avalanche, they could _die_. Jungwoo can’t die, Doyoung won’t let that happen. 

“Me too,” Ten announces and Doyoung’s anxiety doubles. Ten and Jungwoo outside in the storm, it would be so easy for Ten to kill them out there, no one would ever suspect him. This can’t be happening, he needs to _stop_ this. 

“Are you all crazy?” Doyoung asks upset, getting out of his seat and pacing the room instead. He doesn’t know what to do with his anger. “Or do you have a death wish? Because this is a fucking suicide mission!” 

“Doyoung,” Jungwoo says strictly. He rarely uses that tone with him, usually it’s reserved for the kids he coaches at soccer. “Calm down.” 

“How do you want me to calm down when you could literally _die_?” Doyoung retorts, his voice shrill. He’s staring daggers at Jungwoo, not caring for anyone else in the room. He loves him so much and Jungwoo just decides to- to go out there and risk his life? Does he not care about him at all? Does he not realize how much he needs him?

Jungwoo’s eyes turn soft as he gets up, too, walking over to Doyoung to just be with him. “Doie,” he says quietly, only for Doyoung to hear.

“We’ll be careful,” Johnny says calmly. “We’ll come back.”

“I just need to know that they’re okay,” Jaehyun adds. 

Doyoung wants to tell him that there’s no chance any of them are still alive. Maybe he’s the only person in this house who’s sure of that, but he’s long learnt that hope is silly, at least when logic tells you there is no hope. And hoping that the three of them are still out there alive, it defies all logic. 

He feels disgusted by himself, for being so _okay_ with them being dead, for not clinging on to that silly hope, for thinking that maybe, just maybe they got the better end of the deal. 

But the others still want to believe, need to see it to accept it and there’s nothing Doyoung can do to change their minds.

“I don’t approve of this,” Doyoung says decisively, “But I know you’ll do it anyways, so you better be careful.” He turns around and leaves the room, he just wants to be alone for some time. 

 

***

 

“Promise me to be careful,” he mumbles into Jungwoo’s neck. “I can’t lose you.”

“You won’t,” Jungwoo says firmly, gently cradling Doyoung’s face in his hands before kissing him. “I’ll be careful and I’ll come back. Trust me.” 

“Watch out for Ten,” Doyoung instructs him, lowering his voice although they are alone in their room. “He could kill all of you and call it an accident, I don’t trust him.” 

Jungwoo nods, now serious. “But you watch out too, yeah?” he asks, making sure Doyoung is looking him in the eyes. “If it isn’t Ten, the killer might be staying here.”

“Yeah, I know,” Doyoung sighs. “I hate this so much, this isn’t how our first holiday was supposed to go, it really isn’t.” 

“When we get back home let’s forget about this nightmare, but until then we have to be careful. I love you,” Jungwoo mumbles before connecting their lips quickly, as if to seal his words.

“I love you too, please come back to me.” It’s barely a whisper, but Jungwoo is close enough to understand anyways. 

“Jungwoo, let’s go!” Johnny shouts from downstairs and Doyoung slowly moves away from him, freeing him from the hug. Jungwoo gives him a reassuring smile before they walk downstairs together to join the others again.

Doyoung feels terrible for allowing this to happen, but he knows there is nothing he can do to change their minds. He watches as they start moving down the driveway, their legs sinking into the snow which reaches up to their knees. 

He continues staring at the driveway, even after they’re long gone, until a hand sneaks into his. It’s a familiar cold hand and Doyoung immediately tightens his grip on it. Jeno returns the pressure.

 

***

 

They’re waiting all afternoon, trying not to let worry and panic take over, distracting themselves with useless house work. 

They’re still waiting when the sun sets, turning the outside a gloomy gray once again, snow reflecting the moonlight which shines through the clouds. The wind has picked up again and the cold air is trying to creep its way into the cabin, making Doyoung shiver. 

The waiting is killing him, his heart feeling heavier with every minutes that passes. They had eaten dinner earlier, but Doyoung hadn’t been able to have more than a few bites of the rice Taeyong had prepared for them, not when Jungwoo is still out there.

He takes solace in the fact that there haven’t been any more screams ringing through the house, announcing yet another tragedy, but even that can’t calm him down when Ten could very well be killing the others right now. 

Jeno has been pacing the living room ever since dinner has ended. He’s given up on staring out the window hours ago. His fingers are tugging at his bottom lip nervously, eyes still red from the tears spilled over the day. 

Doyoung worries for him nearly as much as he does for Jungwoo. Should the others return with bad news, he doesn’t know if Jeno can take it. The chances of them returning are getting slimmer with every passing hour. The chances of them bearing good news are even lower.

He gets pulled out of his thoughts when he sees the shine of a flashlight coming up the driveway. A few seconds later he sees four figures emerge from the dark and all the tension leaves his body at once. Jungwoo is still alive, they’re all still alive. 

“They’re back!” he shouts before making his way towards the front door. He pulls it open and flinches when the cold hits him, but he doesn’t care, they’re nearly there now. 

Jaemin appears next to him, having run down the stairs once again, a few of the others slowly follow, Doyoung can’t see Jeno, he wonders whether he should’ve stayed with him. 

Jaehyun appears first, his cheeks are burning red, snow has caught in his eyebrows and his lips are blue. His teeth are clattering and his eyes are empty. Doyoung knows right then that what he’s been suspecting all along must be true. 

Jaemin’s eyes are still hopeful, searching for some kind of positive news on Jaehyun’s face. The older just shakes his head and walks past them into the warmth of the house. 

Jungwoo is next, when he sees Doyoung the first tears leave his eyes. He throws himself into his boyfriend’s arms, a sob escaping his lips. He’s so, so cold. Doyoung starts shivering, desperately running his hands up and down Jungwoo’s back, trying to warm him up. 

“Let’s get you all inside and close the door,” Taeyong suggests from behind after Ten and Johnny have turned up at the doorstep, leading Jungwoo and Doyoung to pull apart. 

“Where are they?” Jaemin asks, his eyes still scanning the driveway for a trace of the others. Doyoung feels sick watching it. 

Renjun takes his hand, slowly pulling him away from the door. “Come on,” he says quietly, “They aren’t coming, Minnie.”

“What do you mean, they aren’t coming?” he asks, looking at Johnny now. “Did you not find them? You promised you’d only return once you’ve found them. Where are they?”

Johnny swallows hard, he looks terribly cold. He opens his mouth, closes it again, starts another attempt. “We found them,” he says finally. “They’re dead. They must’ve been for hours.”

“No,” Jaemin shakes his head, his bottom lip is trembling and he is as pale as a ghost. “You’re lying.”

Ten’s eyes fill with pity. “We found them huddled together, the froze to death, Jaemin.”

Jaemin rips his hand out of Renjun’s hold, covering his mouth with it instead. “I called him a brat, that’s the last thing I said to him,” he cries. “I told Mark to deal with it and fuck off, this is all my fault.” 

“Jaemin, this isn’t your fault, you are not responsible for this,” Renjun pleads, trying to take his hand once more, but Jaemin doesn’t let him. He turns around and storms out of the room, the first sob leaving his mouth before he’s gone.

Renjun looks after him, heartbroken. “Give him some time,” Doyoung says quietly, “He’ll be okay.” The words don’t feel right in his mouth, none of them will ever be okay and he knows it. 

“Where is Jeno?” Jungwoo asks gently. “We have to tell him.”

Doyoung’s heart drops at the thought. Although he knows that Jeno knows already, he still doesn’t want to break Jeno’s heart like this. But he knows that he has to be the person to tell him, he wouldn’t allow anyone else to do it. 

“He’s in the living room,” Doyoung replies shakily. “I think he knows already.” 

Jeno takes one look at them and breaks down. Sobs are shaking his body, one hand flying up to his silver necklace. “Was he in pain?” he asks through tears, his voice so tiny that Doyoung has trouble understanding him. 

“He-” Jungwoo says, choked up by his own tears, “He looked peaceful.” He reaches for something in his pocket and then pulls out a necklace identical to Jeno’s. “I thought you’d like to have this,” he says, handing it over to him. 

“Why did he leave me?” Jeno asks while his hands are closing around the necklace. “I would’ve come with him.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really sorry this took so long, but I've finally finished my exams.
> 
> It also took us quite long to write this because well,,,,, we're getting into bias/ult territory here. And to be honest it won't get much better from here on, oof.
> 
> Thank you so much for being patient with us and reading once again. :)


	7. Day 5

**Day 5**

“Doyoung,” someone is shaking him awake. “Doie, you need to wake up, come on, please.” It’s Jungwoo, he realises a few seconds later. 

He’s _so_ tired. He took another sleeping pill last night, just wanting to have a dreamless night after everything that had happened, but the nightmares had still come. He feels so guilty. 

“Hm, just another minute,” he whines, not yet ready to open his eyes, eyelids feeling just as heavy as his limbs. 

“Please, Doyoung,” Jungwoo begs, gripping his arm a little harder. “Something happened, I need you to get up.”

His heart drops immediately. _Something happened_ , he knows exactly what that means. His breathing picks up. _Not again, not again, not another dead friend._

“What?” he mumbles, it takes his utmost strength to peel his eyelids open. The sun is only starting to rise, but it’s still hurting his eyes so much he has to squint. “What happened?” he asks, looking up to see Jungwoo’s face which is covered in tears. 

Jungwoo’s lip trembles when he returns his gaze. “Sicheng- he,” Jungwoo starts and Doyoung feels horrible for feeling relieved that it isn’t Jeno. “Sicheng found Johnny.”

“Johnny?” Doyoung asks void of any emotion, finally sitting up. “Johnny is dead?” 

Jungwoo nods, not able to say it out loud as more tears are leaving his eyes. “I’m so sorry, Doie, I know,” he sobs, “What he meant to you.” 

Doyoung can’t hear him anymore, his ears are ringing, he feels like he’s in a tunnel, darkness enveloping him.  
_Not Johnny, oh not Johnny._ His relief about Jeno being okay is washed away in an instant, making him feel even guiltier. When did he start ranking his friends’ lives like that?

Johnny was the first person he talked to after moving across the country, the first one to introduce him to everyone else, the first person to show him what actual friendship is like. He remembers evenings spent together with Johnny’s family when he would’ve been alone in his room otherwise, he remembers how Johnny had always been there for him, never asking questions, always understanding. 

“Where is he?” he finally manages to ask. He needs to see him, needs to be with him. Then, more of an afterthought than anything else he asks, “Is Sicheng okay? Is someone looking after him?” 

Doyoung has to take control, has to make sure everyone is okay, he has let his own selfish feelings come in between his obligation to protect them. He let himself go, wallowing in his own anxiety and sadness ever since Chenle died, but this can’t go on. He’s better than this, he has to take _control_. 

“He’s in the bathroom,” Jungwoo explains quietly. “I- I saw him, don’t go in there, Doie, please.” His eyes are filled with concern, making Doyoung question what the hell had happened to Johnny. 

“And Sicheng?” he asks, the quiver in his voice barely concealed.

“Jaehyun is with him, I think he’s going to be okay.”

“Okay,” Doyoung says, getting up. His legs feel weak and heavy, his head is spinning a little, but he doesn’t care, he needs to get to Johnny. 

When he stumbles into the communal bathroom between Sicheng and Johnny’s rooms, he has to grip the wall for support to stop himself from fainting. 

The room _smells_ like blood, although Doyoung has no idea what blood smells like. It’s everywhere. Splatters of it are covering the walls, the mirror, even the ceiling. The floor is one big puddle of blood, Johnny is lying in the middle of it.

“What the hell?” Doyoung mutters once he’s regained control over his body. He looks down at Johnny and stares into his glassy eyes, realizing that Johnny must have seen his killer.

He only notices Ten is leaning against one of the walls when he clears his throat. “Whoever did this is a fucking psycho,” Ten mutters, not looking at Doyoung. 

Doyoung wants to laugh. Of course Ten would say that. He doesn’t know who to trust anymore, he doesn’t know what to believe. 

“What are you doing here?” Doyoung asks, he can’t seem to take his eyes off of Johnny’s body. 

“I could ask you the same thing,” Ten retorts, voice tense. “I can’t leave him alone, he would’ve done the same for me.” 

Doyoung nods. He knows Ten is right, but he still can’t trust him, not when he’s most likely the killer. Who else could’ve done it? 

Johnny saw his attacker and Doyoung wishes more than anything that he was still alive and could tell them who is putting them through all of this. 

“He deserved so much better than this,” Doyoung says, making eye contact with Ten.

 

***

 

“I mean, how much longer can it take before people will come looking for us?” Sicheng asks into the room. “We haven’t talked to any of our parents in five days, they’ll start getting suspicious soon.”

The others agree, mumbling quietly, eyes fixed on Sicheng. 

Doyoung realizes that he’s the only one who hasn’t got anyone worrying about him at home. He realizes that the only person who cares about him is sitting right next to him, holding his hand and Doyoung isn’t sure if they’re going to make it out of here alive. 

“We can’t just wait for someone to get us out of here,” Doyoung argues. “The storm is still bad, maybe they can’t reach us right now.”

“And what the hell else are we supposed to do?” Jaemin asks.

“We should’ve never come here,” Jaehyun mumbles quietly, but most of them can still hear him. Doyoung agrees, he wishes they’d never planned this trip in the first place, he wishes he could turn back time and make sure none of them would ever get on that stupid bus. 

“That’s rich coming from you,” Jaemin mutters, “When you’re the one who suggested all of this.”

Jaehyun looks up, eyes shooting sparks. “Are you saying this is my fault?”

“Well, it is your fault, it’s all yours and Johnny’s fault, but I can’t really tell him that anymore since someone decided to slit his fucking throat.”

“Keep Johnny’s name out of your mouth,” Jaehyun hisses, hands balling into fists. Doyoung has never seen him this angry before. 

“It’s your fault!” Jaemin repeats, voice spiteful, eyebrows drawn together. 

“It’s no one’s fault, shut the fuck up!” Taeyong exclaims angrily. Taeyong _never_ swears, the room is stunned into silence, but Doyoung doesn’t notice, his vision has become blurry and his heart is beating out of his chest again. 

Why can’t he stay in control?

_I let you into my house and you repay me like this? Fucking my wife? You are sick! Your parents would be ashamed of you, Dongyoung. It’s your fault they’re dead, we took you in, we took care of you and you-_

“It’s not like that! It’s not my fault,” Doyoung tries to explain, flinching when the hand meets his cheek. Only that no one has hit him. Everyone is staring at him, some in horror, others in confusion.

Jungwoo is gripping his hand so tightly it hurts. “Doyoung, are you okay?”

“Yeah, it’s fine,” he mumbles, voice shaky. What has he just done? Why are they all looking at him like that? 

“Of course he’s not okay, he’s fucking crazy! Can’t you see that?” Ten scoffs visibly upset. “He kil-”

“I’m not crazy!” Doyoung screams, raising his voice. He’s _so_ angry all of a sudden. How dare Ten call him crazy, he’s not crazy, he is in control! He has worked so hard to be in control.

“I’m not crazy, I’m not!” He’s looking around the room, searching their faces for understanding and finds none. Jeno is staring at him in horror.

“Of course you’re not crazy,” Jungwoo says loud and clear for everyone to hear. 

“I’m not,” Doyoung whispers, he needs the others to know he’s not crazy. 

“It’s okay,” Jungwoo whispers, kissing his temple. He’s still holding his hand, grounding Doyoung, stopping him from losing control again. He doesn’t know what he’d do without Jungwoo. 

Doyoung looks Ten straight in the eyes, his voice is filled with contempt when he says, “I didn’t kill anyone. I could _never_ kill someone.”

“It’s okay, Doyoung, we’re all know that, don’t worry,” Taeyong says, looking at him with pity in his eyes. Doyoung wants to vomit, he doesn’t want to be pitied, never again. 

“Well, I don’t _know_ ,” Ten replies. 

“Shut up,” Jungwoo hisses. “If there’s a killer in this room, it’s you.”

Doyoung flinches, he’s not ready for accusations to start flying around again. Especially not when he himself is still so confused.

“All of you need to fucking stop, this isn’t getting us anywhere,” Jisung of all people speaks up. He looks more annoyed than anything else. “You’re supposed to be the adults here and yet all of you act like fucking children, give me a break.”

“He’s right,” Sicheng agrees. “It’s obvious one of us did it, what does it help to accuse each other, we should look out for each other. If there’s one thing we should’ve learned by now, it’s that we should never be alone!”

“I’m not looking out for _him_ ,” Ten spats, staring straight at Doyoung. “I’m not taking care of killers.” 

“He was with us when Yuta died,” Taeyong explains, sighing in annoyance.

“There could be more than one killer for all we know,” Ten retorts. “Maybe they did it together,” he’s glaring at Jungwoo now.

Doyoung can feel himself grow angry again, it’s one thing to accuse him, but Jungwoo who is just here because Doyoung asked him to come, who never did anything wrong? He’s had enough. 

“Well, I don’t wanna look out for you either,” Doyoung hisses. “I’d rather _die_ than spend another second alone with you.”

“How about we form groups?” Jaehyun suggests. “That way we can still look out for one another without having to fight the entire time.” 

“Okay,” Sicheng agrees.

“As long as I’m not in a group with _them_ ,” Ten huffs and Doyoung rolls his eyes. Ten has always been childish, but this is taking it to a new extreme. 

“Fine,” Doyoung says, getting up from the sofa. “I’ll be in a group with Jungwoo, anyone who wants to join us can come to our room.” He looks at Jungwoo expectantly before walking out of the living room.

They sit on their bed for about fifteen minutes, talking about Ten and Johnny and everyone else when someone knocks at the door. 

“Come in,” Doyoung calls out and the door opens a second later, revealing Taeil and Taeyong in the hallway. 

“Hey,” Jungwoo says with a smile. “Wanna come in?” 

Taeyong gives them a small smile and closes the door behind them when they’re inside. 

“So I guess you wanna team up with us?” Doyoung asks when neither of them are making the first move. The mood in the room is awkward, but considering that Ten had just accused him of killing his friends, Doyoung can’t blame any of them. 

“Yeah,” Taeyong says, voice sounding sure. “I know you didn’t kill them, I was with you the entire time.” He looks at Taeil who gives him a small nod before continuing. “To be honest we were suspecting Ten as well, I know that sounds horrible because I don’t want to believe any of our friends would be capable of this, but-”

“I get it,” Jungwoo says softly, face now a lot friendlier. “We suspected him for quite some time already, but we didn’t say anything for that exact reason, it’s- I just can’t believe that someone is doing this to all of us.” He swallows hard and Doyoung’s heart drops at the sight. He takes Jungwoo’s hand and holds it tightly. 

“I’m just scared,” Doyoung mumbles tiredly, looking at their intertwined hands. “When is all of this going to stop? Is it going to stop at all?” 

That’s what has cost him the most sanity, the uncertainty of it all. The killer could stop at any second and none of them would ever know who had murdered the others, but he could just as well carry on until even the last one of them is dead. He doesn’t know what’s worse and that scares him, it scares him that he isn’t sure whether he’ll be able to survive another trauma, deal with more death in his life. He isn’t sure whether fighting on is worth it anymore. 

“I’m scared, too,” Taeyong mumbles, sitting down on the bed next to Jungwoo. “But I think it’s okay to be scared,” he swallows hard. “I- we just have to make sure the rest of the kids get out of this alive, what are we supposed to tell their parents?”

Doyoung has thought about that a lot, too. What he’s going to say to everyone, if he has to say anything at all. He feels responsible for them, he feels like he’s let them down. 

“We just need to hold on a little longer,” Jungwoo announces determined. “How much longer can it be until someone is going to get us out of here? The storm won’t last forever.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Taeil nods. “So what is our plan for making sure no one else dies from now on?”

Doyoung takes a deep breath, trying to get the anxiety out of his system. This is what he needs right now, an approach to deal with it all, to make sure nothing bad will happen from now on. “Well, first off, we should stay in our group,” he says, his need to plan and control finally returning. “Never be alone, don’t leave the room unless it’s necessary, lock the door.”

Taeyong nods in agreement. “Maybe we should get some sort of weapon to defend ourselves?” 

“No,” Jungwoo stops him. “That’s just one more weapon the murderer could kill us with, as long as we stay together we have a chance of overpowering him, that’s safer.” 

Doyoung thinks about that for a second before agreeing with Jungwoo, the further away he is from any knife in this house the better. 

“At night it should be okay if we stay in our own rooms as long as we lock the door,” Taeil suggests. “And we should regroup again at fixed times, that minimizes the chances of him getting us.”

“Alright,” Doyoung nods, that sounds like a good plan so far. “We can go downstairs as a group of four so we can prepare food and stuff, that should work out.”

Jungwoo sighs relieved. “This is the first time I’m feeling somewhat save in days.”

Doyoung sends him a small smile and kisses his cheek, whispering, “It’s all going to be okay.” He needs it to be okay.

“Who is teaming up with Ten?” Jungwoo asks after a little while, looking at Taeyong and Taeil expectantly. “We should keep an eye on them.”

“Jae, Kunhang and Sicheng, they-” Taeyong stops himself for a second, looking a bit apologetic, “They think one of you did it.”

“Jaehyun too?” Doyoung asks surprised and a bit hurt. 

“No, not Jae, but the others,” Taeyong explains. “Jae was with us when Yuta died, so he knows it can’t have been you.” 

“Okay,” Doyoung nods. That’s something at least, he doesn’t know what he would’ve done if Jaehyun had accused him. He has known him nearly as longs as he’s known Johnny, they were seatmates throughout most of high school and Doyoung considers him a really good friend. 

“So the kids teamed up together?” Jungwoo asks, frowning. “I don’t know how to feel about that.

Doyoung thinks about Jeno and how it’ll be a lot harder to look out for him now, his heart constricts at the thought.

“Me neither, honestly,” Taeyong says, running a hand through his unkempt hair. “But they don’t trust us anymore, I guess,” he sighs.

“I’m going to talk to Jeno,” Doyoung announces, getting up. “I wanna know what’s going on.” He walks towards the door but is stopped by Taeil’s hand.

“We have to stay together, remember? Someone should go with you.”

“Yeah, sure,” Doyoung nods, looking at them expectantly. “Let’s go then.”

He knocks at Jaemin and Jisung’s door a minute later, Taeyong told him they’d all locked themselves in there.

“Who is it?” Renjun yells a second later from directly behind the door.

“Doyoung,” he replies. “Can you let me in please?”

“What do you want?” That’s Jaemin’s voice. 

“I wanna talk to Jeno.” 

It stays quiet inside the room for way too long, only hushed voices can be heard, but Doyoung can’t make out what they’re saying. 

“He’s asleep right now, come back later,” Jaemin announces through the door, voice not leaving any room for questions.

Doyoung frowns and checks his watch, it’s eleven in the morning, why would Jeno be sleeping? It doesn’t make any sense. “Why is he sleeping, is he okay? Can you please let me in?”

“No!” Renjun says resolutely. “He’s okay, he’s just sleeping. Come back later.” 

Doyoung sighs, his eyes meeting Jungwoo’s which mirror his own desperation. Something feels horribly wrong. 

Jeno doesn’t come out for the rest of the day and when Doyoung knocks at their door again at night, he gets no answer whatsoever. 

It’s nearly ten when he hears the door finally opening and hurried feet walk across the hallway, but once he’s opened his own door the hallway is empty again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long, that's definitely not how we planned this to go, but my laptop had to be repaired and afterwards I had my wisdom teeth taken out.
> 
> Anyways, seems like Johnny wasn't the killer after all. Who do you think it is? Who do you think will die next?
> 
> Thank you for reading!!!


	8. Day 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning for suicide in this chapter

**Day 6**

They get woken up by their alarm for the first time since they got here, Doyoung groans. 

He fell asleep late into the night, not being able to shake off the feeling of something being very, very wrong. Even his dreams had been exclusively about Jeno, it must be the first night in months that he hasn’t had the same recurring dream.

“Turn it off-” Jungwoo whines, reaching over Doyoung to grab his phone which has become useless apart from acting as an alarm. 

Doyoung yawns, eyes still closed, but he can’t help but smile a little when Jungwoo finally manages to turn off the alarm and places his head on Doyoung’s chest afterwards. He hugs him, fingers running through his hair. 

“We need to get up soon to meet the other two,” he mumbles, kissing the crown of Jungwoo’s head. 

“Just another minute,” Jungwoo bargains, craning his head to properly kiss Doyoung.

“Fine,” he chuckles into the kiss, it’s not like he can say no to Jungwoo anyways. 

 

***

 

Breakfast is weird when it’s just the four of them, the house is eerily quiet although it’s already past nine. Doyoung hasn’t heard a sound out of the younger boy’s room and it only increases his worry. He’s knocked on their doors again and not gotten an answer again as well. 

He’s glad Ten’s team seem to stay away from them, he doesn’t know what he’d do otherwise. 

They all clean the dishes together and then look at each other. 

“So what now?” Jungwoo asks, running a hand through his hair. 

“I found a few DVDs in the living room, we could watch a movie?” Taeil suggests. 

“A movie? Really?” Doyoung questions, raising his brows. He’s definitely not in the mood for some light entertainment.

“I like the idea, it’s a distraction at least,” Jungwoo argues, the cutest pout on his face. 

Doyoung has to stop himself from cooing. 

“Okay, so you two go watch a movie and Doyoung and I will do something else,” Taeyong suggests. He checks his watch and then looks up again. “Let’s meet at noon to eat together?”

“That sounds like a good idea,” Taeil agrees and Jungwoo nods as well.

Doyoung sighs. “Okay, but be careful you two, yeah?”

“Of course,” Jungwoo smiles, leaning over to kiss his cheek. “Nothing will happen, we’re together after all.”

“I still worry,” Doyoung mumbles, pulling him closer to hold on a little longer. 

“Don’t,” Jungwoo whispers in his ear before sending him a breathtaking smile. _Love you_ , he mouthes, winking. 

“Love you, too,” Doyoung whispers after letting go of him. 

Taeyong and him go up to their room, looking out of the window in silence for some time and watching the snow before they’re both moving on to their phones.

Taeyong looks up from his phone on which he’s been scrolling through old photos when they hear a knock a few hours later. 

“Who is it?” Doyoung calls out, wondering if Taeil and Jungwoo have returned early.

“It’s me,” Jaehyun says, voice urgent. 

Taeyong rolls his eyes, whispering, “He’s never been the brightest candle on the cake,” before getting up and walking towards the door.

“What is it, Jae?” he asks, louder. His hand is already on the doorknob, Doyoung isn’t sure they should trust him that easily.

“Are you alone?” he questions, getting up as well. 

“Yeah,” Jaehyun groans. “Open the fucking door already, I need to talk to you _now_.” 

Taeyong lets him in a second later and Doyoung stares into his tense face. 

“What happened?” Taeyong asks, voice instantly higher.

Jaehyun worries his lip, eyes moving from Doyoung to Taeyong and back, his face twisting in an emotion Doyoung can’t decipher. “I-” he starts, taking a shaky breath, “Can I talk to Doyoung alone please?” 

“No, we have a policy of always staying together,” Doyoung declares, shaking his head vehemently. Something in his throat is closing up, his body is telling him things his mind doesn’t want to accept yet. 

Jaehyun clears his throat. “Taeil is waiting in the living room,” he explains. “Tyong, can you leave us please?” His eyes turn pleading as he turns towards Taeyong. 

They seem to communicate through glances alone, because a few seconds later Taeyong nods jerkily. “Yeah, sure, I’ll leave you two alone,” he says and is out of the room right away.

“What is going on, Jae?” Doyoung asks, his voice shaky. He has to sit down, his legs are trembling, he can’t keep standing.

Jaehyun sits down next to him, leaving enough space so that their thighs aren’t touching, but it’s still too close for him right now. “Doyoung,” he says calmly and Doyoung’s heart rate accelerates immediately. Something has happened, he knows it.

“Is it Jungwoo?” he asks, ears already starting to ring. It can’t be Jungwoo, it can’t, it can’t, it can’t. 

“No,” Jaehyun says, but his face is still twisted in pain. “It’s Jeno, Doyoung.” A tear rolls down his cheek, he rubs it away quickly.

Doyoung blinks. “What?” he asks, hoping, praying he misheard. 

“Jeno killed himself last night. He’s dead,” Jaehyun says, a sob escaping his lips.

Doyoung can’t hear a thing. The ringing in his ears gets louder than it has ever been. He’s trying to breathe, but there’s no oxygen in the room, so he inhales and inhales until he feels dizzy, stars dancing in front his eyes.

Someone is touching his arm, Doyoung doesn’t know who it is, doesn’t know where he is.

 

_“Hi, I’m Jeno,” the young boy introduces himself. He smiles and his eyes turn into crescent moons, jet black hair falling into them. His ears are tinted red, he’s obviously nervous and Doyoung feels something in his chest grow being reminded of his younger self._

_“Hey,” Doyoung grins, still a little out of breath from dancing. “Nice to meet you, I’m Doyoung.”_

_Jeno nods shyly and keeps on smiling. Doyoung has never found it easy to connect with younger boys, but something about Jeno is so_ adorable _he finds himself returning the smile just as widely._

_“Have you been dancing here for a long time?” the younger boy asks curiously. “I was watching you and you’re so good!”_

_“A little while,” Doyoung explains bashfully. “I can show you the choreography if you’d like me to?”_

_Jeno nods excitedly, the adoration in his eyes clear. No one has looked at Doyoung like that in a long time._

_“How old are you?” Doyoung asks after they’ve finished practice._

_“I’m ten,” Jeno says proudly. “But I’ll turn eleven soon! I can invite you to my birthday party now that we’re friends,” he exclaims with a brilliant smile._

_Doyoung chuckles and messes with his hair. “I’d like that, but only if there’s lots of cake,” he replies with a wink, already searching for ways to gather enough money to buy Jeno a present._

 

_“Won’t you tell me what’s wrong already?” Doyoung asks, a worried frown on his face._

_Jeno has been acting weird lately and Doyoung doesn’t like it. He never thought he’d love someone this way again, not after Gongmyung died._

_He cares so much about him, wants him to be happy, wants him to succeed. He doesn’t know when it happened, but what he does know is that Jeno matters more than anything. He’s always there to cheer him up when days are rough, not even knowing what’s going on inside of Doyoung’s head, but still able to make it all better with just one smile._

_“It’s nothing,” Jeno mumbles embarrassed._

_“We talked about this,” Doyoung pushes on with a small smile. “You can tell me anything, I won’t judge. You know that, right?”_

_Jeno takes a deep breath and nods, he’s starting at his hands instead of Doyoung. “Will you still be my friend now that you’ve moved school?” Jeno asks finally, eyes insecure._

Oh. _So this is what it’s all about._

_Doyoung smiles and puts an arm around Jeno, relieved that it’s nothing serious. “Of course,” he promises. “I told you, I’ll always be your friend, as long as you want me to.”_

_“It’s just, you have so many older and cooler friends now, I get that you don’t want to hang out as much with me anymore,” Jeno mumbles._

_Doyoung’s heart breaks a bit, the thought of Jeno feeling this way is painful. “Well, you might not be older than them, but you’re definitely cooler,” he replies with a wink that makes Jeno chuckle._

_“And actually,” he starts, searching for Jeno’s eyes. “You’re more than a friend, you’re like my family.”_

_“Really?” Jeno asks, eyes big in surprise._

_“Really,” Doyoung nods reassuringly._

_Jeno giggles quietly and leans into Doyoung’s hold. “You’re kinda like a part of my family, too,” he says. “You’re way cooler than my sister anyways.”_

 

_”Doyoung? How do you know you like someone?” Jeno asks him, looking anywhere but Doyoung’s eyes. His cheeks are flushed._

_Doyoung smirks, he knew this was coming, he isn’t blind. “Is there someone you think you like?” he asks, voice gentle. He remembers his first crush and how new and scary everything had felt back then._

_It had been even more terrifying because it had been a boy. But she had been great about it, telling him that there was nothing wrong with liking boys, that all that mattered was for him to be happy. He still cherishes these words today, although thinking about her hurts more than it should._

_“I think there is,” Jeno confesses, still not looking at him. “But I don’t know if I should tell him.”_

_Doyoung smiles and nods understandingly. “I get that, it’s scary to confess,” he agrees. “But I still think that when you like someone, you should tell them.”_

_“What if he doesn’t like me back?”_

_“That would suck, of course, but at least you would’ve tried,” Doyoung says, putting an arm around Jeno. “But what if he does like you back?”_

_Jeno blushes and can’t help but smile a little. Doyoung’s heart grows. “I don’t know,” he mumbles. “That would be pretty great.”_

_“See, you should tell Donghyuck.”_

_“It- it’s not him!” Jeno splutters, ears now burning bright red._

_“Sure,” Doyoung chuckles._

 

_“I hate my parents,” Jeno complains, pout on his face prominent. Doyoung flinches a bit, hearing other people talk about their parents like that hurts when there’s nothing he’d want more in the world than have his own parents with him._

_“You don’t hate them,” he corrects Jeno with a gentle smile, he’ll never tell him about his past. Some of his friends have figured out by now he thinks and he doesn’t know how to feel about it. He does know though that he doesn’t want Jeno’s pity._

_“Nah, I really do,” Jeno groans. “They’re always so overprotective. I’m nearly eighteen and they act like I just turned five.”_

_Doyoung sighs, Jeno’s parents do have a tendency to be a bit overprotective. “What is it now?” he asks._

_“They won’t let me go on the ski trip!” Jeno whines, Doyoung thinks he’s about a second away from stomping his feet like an angry toddler._

_“But why? Even Chenle’s parents are okay with it and they don’t let him do anything on his own,” Doyoung asks, frowning._

_“It’s too dangerous,” Jeno imitates the voice of his mom. “There are so many things that could happen, Jeno, what if you get hurt?” he groans. “I’ve been skiing for over ten years, what the hell is her problem?”_

_“Well, you have to come,” Doyoung agrees. “It wouldn’t be the same without you.”_

_“Can you talk to them maybe, you know my mom loves you and when you tell her you’ll look out for me a bit, maybe she’ll let me go?” Jeno asks, making puppy eyes as if he has any convincing to do at all._

_“Of course, I’ll see what I can do,” Doyoung smiles, bumping his shoulder into Jeno’s. “You’ll come with us and have the time of your life!”_

 

“Doyoung?” he hears the voice as if it’s coming from the other end of a tunnel. “Hey, Doyoung, you need to breathe, come on, slowly, in and out.”

The voice is right, breathing sounds like something he should do, but _how_? He’s trying, he’s really trying but he just can’t seem to catch his breath. 

“Doyoung!” it’s definitely Jaehyun, he knows that now. “Breathe! In and out, I’ll do it with you, but you have to breathe.” 

It feels like he’s breathing for the first time ever, it _hurts_ , his chest is burning and the pain is bringing tears to his eyes. 

“Good, again! In,” Jaehyun says slowly. “And out.”

His vision returns slowly, the room is looking blurry but he can see Jaehyun sitting next to him, eyes wide in fear. 

“Where is he?” Doyoung asks, his voice doesn’t sound like himself, his throat feels dry. “I don’t believe you, where is he?” 

“Doyoung-” Jaehyun starts, watching him with pity in his eyes. Doyoung despises pity. 

“No, where is he? Tell me where he is, I want to see him!” he’s screaming by now, he doesn’t care. 

“I really don’t think that’s a good idea,” Jaehyun argues, shaking his head slightly. “He- you don’t want to see him like that.” 

Doyoung gets up angrily. “Don’t tell what I want, you have no idea!” He has to see him, he has to see Jeno. Jeno can’t be dead, he won’t believe it, this can’t be happening. 

“Doyoung, wait,” Jaehyun exclaims, but he’s already opened the door, stumbling towards Jeno’s room. 

The door is open and when he gets inside he sees Jaemin sitting on one of the beds, head buried in his hands and shoulders shaking. “I didn’t know he’d do this,” Jaemin sobs, eyes filled with tears when he realizes Doyoung. “I would’ve never let him sleep alone.”

Doyoung ignores him, he can’t deal with him right now, he has to find Jeno. He walks into the bathroom, checking for him inside, but Jeno isn’t there. _Where_ is he? 

“They-” Jaemin stammers. “They already brought him outside.”

Doyoung shakes his head. He has to find him, he has to! He turns around to walk towards the next room but Jaehyun who has appeared in the doorway stops him, placing two firm hands on his shoulders.

“Doyoung, he’s not here,” he says, voice loud and clear. “He’s outside, we-” he stops himself. 

Jaemin whimpers behind him, “I’m so sorry, Doyoung.”

Jaehyun looks over Doyoung’s shoulder, straight at Jaemin. “It’s not your fault, Jaemin, don’t blame yourself.”

It’s not Jaemin’s fault. 

Doyoung realizes in that second that he won’t find Jeno. He won’t find him because he isn’t there. 

“I promised his mom I’d take care of him,” Doyoung mutters. “I told her not to worry, oh my god.” He feels like he’s going to be sick, his entire body hurts, he’s going to cry. He can’t cry in front of them, he’s never cried, not since-

“It’s going to be okay,” Jaehyun tries to calm him, he’s still touching him, Doyoung can’t stand it, his hands are burning him, he _needs_ to be alone.

He pushes past Jaehyun without another word, not caring about the fact that the other stumbles against the wall, he can’t do this. He slams his door shut and locks it behind himself as the first sob escapes him and tears are starting to run down his cheeks. 

Jeno. Why Jeno? 

He sits down on the bed, burying his face in a pillow seconds later to swallow any sound he’s making. Why is everyone leaving him? Why don’t they care about him? Why is he always alone in the end?

He doesn’t know how long he stays like that, but at some point he hears a faint knock on the door. “Doie? Can you let me in please?” 

He doesn’t answer. He just wants to be alone.

“Doyoung?” Jungwoo’s voice turns pleading. “Can you at least tell me you’re okay? I’m worried.” 

He takes a deep breath although it’s hard with his face still buried into the now wet pillow. He wants to answer him, wants to tell him he’s okay because he doesn’t want Jungwoo to worry about him, but no sound leaves his throat. 

He tries and tries again, but the words don’t come out. 

“Doyoung? Babe, please, I just need to know you’re alright.”

He gets up in slow motion and drags himself to the door, turning the key before walking back to the bed. He can’t look at Jungwoo right now, not when he’s cried for the first time in ten years. He’s so embarrassed, he’s so tired of it all. 

The door opens and Jungwoo enters the room. Doyoung stares at the wall, anywhere but him. 

“Hey,” Jungwoo says quietly, sitting down next to him with enough distance between them. He knows Doyoung so well by now. “I’m just gonna sit here if that’s okay?” he asks quietly. 

Doyoung nods barely enough for it to be noticeable, but Jungwoo sees anyways. 

“Don’t blame yourself, it’s not your fault.” 

He doesn’t answer, he knows it’s not the truth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took as long as it did because we love Jeno (!!!!!!!!!), so... Happy Birthday, Jeno (fkn kill us).
> 
> (Gongmyung is Doyoung's big brother if you didn't know, we contemplated naming him Donghyun but we thought it'd be too confusing so we chose his stage name.)
> 
>  
> 
> Someone asked for a list of all the people who have died, so we decided to add it to each chapter now to make it a little easier.   
> The number refers to their room and (x) means they've died. Hope this helps!
> 
> 0: kun (x)  
> 1: jaemin, jisung  
> 2: chenle (x), dejun (x)  
> 3: donghyuck (x), renjun   
> 4: jeno (x), mark (x)  
> 5: yukhei (x), yangyang   
> 6: kunhang, ten  
> 7: jungwoo, doyoung  
> 8: sicheng, jaehyun  
> 9: taeil, taeyong   
> 10: johnny (x), yuta (x)


	9. Day 7

**Day 7**

Doyoung is staring at Jungwoo when the sun rises. His boyfriend is lying in bed, breathing in and out slowly, softly illuminated by the light that’s let in by the open curtains. 

Doyoung’s eyes are burning, he doesn’t know whether it’s from the lack of sleep or all the tears he has cried during the night. Breathing hurts, he feels terribly empty. In a way all he’s been doing is thinking, but he can’t remember a single thing that’s passed his mind. 

It takes a little longer before Jungwoo’s eyelids start twitching. Once he’s awake and realizes that Doyoung isn’t next to him he sits up and searches the room for him.

“Oh, hey,” he mumbles sleepily, rubbing his eyes with one hand. “Why aren’t you in bed?” 

Doyoung shrugs, it doesn’t matter anyways. It doesn’t matter that he hasn’t been able to move from the uncomfortable chair ever since he sat down on it hours ago. The pain he feels where the chair is pushing into is back is a good one, it reminds him that he’s still here, keeps his thoughts from drifting too far away. 

Jungwoo eyes him concerned, he stretches his arms before getting out of bed and opening the window. It’s still freezing cold outside and when the icy wind reaches Doyoung he has to shiver. 

“When did you get out of bed? And why?” Jungwoo asks him, sitting back down on the bed, facing Doyoung. 

Doyoung shrugs again, hugging himself close to keep away some of the cold.

“You’re cold,” Jungwoo determines, getting up and walking towards Doyoung. “Come back in bed, babe, you need to sleep.” 

Doyoung vehemently shakes his head, or well, he tries to shake it vehemently, but it makes him feel dizzy and so he stops. 

“Doyoung,” Jungwoo says, reaching for his hand, “Please.”

“I can’t,” Doyoung croaks, voice raspy from not using it for so long. 

Jungwoo’s face falls, Doyoung can observe the direct moment in which his heart breaks and his eyes become glassy. “Please, for me,” Jungwoo begs. “I’ll help you, come on.” He pulls him up from the chair and holds him in a tight embrace. Doyoung’s knees wobble, he feels so _weak_. 

“Let’s get you into bed,” Jungwoo mumbles into his hair, slowly walking them towards the bed and sitting Doyoung down on it once they’ve reached it. “There we go.”

Doyoung is tired, unbelievably tired, but when his back meets the mattress he already misses the uncomfortable chair. In a way he doesn’t deserve the comfort of the bed, not when he wasn’t able to save Jeno, not when he didn’t do everything in his power to protect him. He deserves to feel all the pain in the world and more.

Jungwoo covers him with a blanket which doesn’t stop Doyoung from feeling ice cold, he’s starting to wonder if it has anything to do with the temperature in the room at all. 

“You need to rest,” Jungwoo explains, sounding nearly as if he’s scolding Doyoung for not taking care of himself. He probably is. “I know it’s hard, I really do,” he whispers, running a hand through Doyoung’s hair, eyes never leaving his face. “But I need you and the others do, too.”

Doyoung wants to care, wants it to matter, but it just doesn’t. So he closes his eyes to avoid Jungwoo’s piercing stare only to open them seconds later when pictures of Jeno are flashing through his mind.

“It isn’t your fault, Doyoung. You’re not to blame for this.” 

Doyoung wants to shake his head in protest, but Jungwoo’s gentle touch stops him from doing so. 

His eyes are determined, jaw clenching. “No, listen to me,” he says, visibly upset. “This isn’t your fault. You’re not to blame for any of this, there’s nothing you could’ve done that you didn’t do.” 

He knows Jungwoo is lying to make him feel better, but still his words soothe him, if only a tiny bit. 

“Okay?” Jungwoo asks, caressing his cheek with gentle fingers.

Doyoung’s eyes flutter shut again and although all can see are pictures of Jeno, he doesn’t open them again. He grabs Jungwoo’s hand and doesn’t let it go, the need for him to stay close is unbearable all of a sudden. 

He falls into a fitful sleep a few minutes later. His dreams are confusing, at first he’s in the kitchen again, but later he walks onto a field of flowers and spots two boys in the distance. When he gets closer he realizes it’s Jeno and Gongmyung. They wave at him, calling for him to join them, laughing happily when he does. Then, suddenly, they stare at him in horror and Doyoung frantically tries to figure out why, not finding an answer for it. When he sees the bloody knife in his hand he screams, dropping it on the ground. When he looks up again both of them lying in the field, tainting the soil with their blood. 

He wakes up with tears in his eyes, finding it hard to breathe. He wants to scream. This is a new dream, not one of the returning ones he has gotten used to. 

“Babe, it’s okay, I’m here,” Jungwoo says quietly, soothingly. He’s still holding Doyoung’s hand, the hand he held the knife in in his dream. Doyoung flinches and pulls it back. 

He breathes heavily, trying to get his pounding heartbeat under control. 

“It’s just a dream, I’m here.”

Doyoung nods, staring at his hands. They aren’t bloody like they were in his dreams, he didn’t kill them. He didn’t kill them. 

“It’s going to be okay,” Jungwoo mumbles. 

Doyoung takes a deep breath before looking up again. He has to get it together.

“Better?” 

“A bit,” he manages to get out.

“I’m going to get you something to eat, okay?” 

“What?” Doyoung exclaims, eyes darting up. “No, you can’t go alone!” It’s more than he’s said in the last 14 hours combined and his throat protests, sending him into a coughing fit. 

Jungwoo hands him a water bottle and waits for him to calm down, running his hand across Doyoung’s back soothingly. “We both have to eat something, Doie. You especially.” 

Doyoung knows he’s right although he’s sure he won’t be able to swallow even a bite of food, the heaviness in his chest won’t allow it. “But you can’t go alone,” Doyoung protests, voice weak. “I can’t lose you, too.” 

“Doyoung,” Jungwoo mumbles before pulling him close and just _holding_ him. “You won’t lose me, I promise.” 

It feels good to be held by him, to let himself go and count on Jungwoo to be there, to take care of him. Nobody has taken care of him in a long time and so it feels weird, weird but good. 

“You can’t promise that,” he whispers quietly, trying to control his tears because he doesn’t want to cry yet again. “You just can’t.”

“I promise you we’ll get out of here,” Jungwoo replies, cradling his head in his hands to make Doyoung took at him. “I promise. Do you trust me?” 

The first tear leaves Doyoung’s eye when Jungwoo looks at him hopefully. He knows that it’s a promise Jungwoo won’t be able to hold, knows that the chances of them getting out of this horror house are slim. But he can see the childish hope in Jungwoo’s eyes and it’s at that moment that he understands that Jungwoo hasn’t realized it yet, hasn’t realized yet that they might actually die. 

It feels like someone has broken Doyoung’s heart into a million pieces and is now stomping on them to inflict maximum pain.

They’re interrupted by someone knocking at their door, Doyoung’s heartbeat spiking at it, imagining all the different reasons why someone would want to talk to them. 

Who has died now? Does it even matter anymore? 

When Jungwoo opens the door and Doyoung realizes that it’s Taeyong and Taeil he doesn’t know whether to feel relieved or not. This has only postponed the inevitable, Doyoung is sure that, it can’t be long before someone else dies.

“Hey Doyoung,” Taeyong says with what Doyoung assumes to be a compassionate smile. “How are you holding up?”

Doyoung grimaces. How the hell is he supposed to hold up? Jeno is dead, nothing matters anymore. 

“He’s doing okay,” Jungwoo mumbles quietly. “I was actually on my way to get us some food,” he explains, eyes fixed on Doyoung who is still sitting on the edge of the bed. 

“Oh, that’s good because we actually cooked for all of us,” Taeyong explains.

“All of us?” Jungwoo asks, sounding a bit confused.

“Yeah, everyone’s invited. Taeil and I figured that we should all talk.”

“Is Ten coming?” Doyoung demands, not able to cut the venom out of his voice. 

“I don’t know, but I invited him,” Taeyong says curtly. “All these accusations just-” he shrugs helplessly, “We should stick together and watch out for one another so that something like yesterday doesn’t happen again.”

“Seriously?” Doyoung scoffs. “You think spending time with an actual killer won’t get us killed? What the fuck Taeyong?”

Jungwoo sighs quietly and gently pushes Taeyong out of the door. “We’ll be there, give us a minute.”

“We won’t be there,” Doyoung exclaims as soon as the door is closed again. “Are you crazy? Do you want him to stab us right there in the kitchen?” 

“Doyoung!” Jungwoo warns. “We’re all together, there’s no chance he could actually succeed.” 

Doyoung shakes his head. “You’re not taking this seriously, there’s a _killer_ in this house, someone who wants you dead! We can’t trust any them.”

“They’re still our friends,” Jungwoo retorts. “And accusing all of them won’t help. We need to talk to them to figure out what’s really going on.”

“You’re crazy,” Doyoung declares. “Do you even know how worried I am? I can’t lose you, Jungwoo.” 

“And you won’t lose me,” Jungwoo says firmly. “I promise you that. But remember that your friends are downstairs and most of them are probably just as scared as we are, we need to be there for them!”

“I tried being there for them and-” And they still died. 

“That doesn’t mean we should stop, Doie,” Jungwoo says, voice soft. “I know you and I know you’d never just abandon them. I know you’re scared, but I also know that you’ll regret it if you aren’t there for them now.” 

He’s right, of course he’s right. Doyoung wonders how he could forget about all the others, too caught up in his grief and his fear for Jungwoo. He feels horribly guilty. 

“See, so let’s go down there and talk to them. Let’s check how they’re doing, too.” 

“Fine,” Doyoung mumbles eventually. “But stay away from Ten, yeah?” 

“I promise,” Jungwoo sighs, giving him a small smile.

It seems like everyone else has gathered at the big table already when they walk in holding hands. Doyoung scans the room and realizes that the groups that formed two days ago still seem to be sticking together.

Jaemin is flanked by Jisung and Renjun and looks about as miserable as Doyoung feels. The others don’t look much better either. 

“Okay, so now that we’re all here,” Taeyong announces after they’ve all sat down, “I think we should talk.”

Jaehyun nods in agreement, giving Taeyong a small smile when their eyes meet.

“Although we’ve formed these- ‘groups’,” he paints air quotes, “I think we should still be there for each other.”

“The snow is getting less heavy, it can’t be much longer until it stops,” Jaehyun declares. Doyoung has a faint suspicion that the two of them planned this meeting together, it just seems way too practiced. 

“So let’s make sure we all get out of here alive and-” Taeyong is rudely interrupted by a dry laughter. It’s Jaemin.

“You can’t honestly believe that anyone is getting out of here alive?” he voices what Doyoung is thinking. “You can’t be that stupid.” 

“Jaemin!” Jaehyun scolds loudly.

“Believe me or not, I’ve thought about it and I’ve come to the conclusion that we’ll be safest when we stick together and make sure no one’s ever alone,” Taeyong spits back, sounding genuinely upset. “Or does anyone have a better solution?”

“The solution is to stay as far away from whoever did it as possible!” Jaemin exclaims. “And as it wasn’t me and I know it wasn’t anyone from my group either-” he shrugs but leaves the rest of the sentence unsaid. 

“You’re all fucking crazy,” Sicheng announces calmly. His voice is deep and quiet but it still carries through the room. It isn’t often that he voices his opinion, most of the times he prefers keeping his thoughts to himself. “All of you,” he looks at every single person in the room.

“What the fuck,” Ten mutters.

“All _I_ know is that I didn’t fucking do it,” he declares. “So I might as well start killing all of you and hope I’ll get out of here once the snow stops.”

The silence in the room is unbearable, Doyoung wants to say something just to break it. 

“And you say we’re crazy,” Jisung mumbles eventually. 

“Literally,” Jaemin agrees. “I’d never kill one of my friends, although I’m not sure any of you are friends anymore.”

“Guys, come on, no one is killing anybody here,” Jaehyun interrupts them.

“Well someone is killing us, Jaehyun,” Sicheng scoffs. “Someone is murdering us and I don’t know how you feel about that, but I’d like to get out of this shitshow alive.”

“We all want that,” Taeil agrees. “But if we all start killing each other that definitely won’t happen.” The thought of all of them turning against each other is scary to Doyoung. 

“We won’t start killing each other!” Taeyong says loudly. “We have to stick together, look out for each other and _not_ kill each other.”

“Of course we won’t kill each other,” Jungwoo speaks quietly. “No one else dies, enough is enough.” 

Doyoung takes his hand under the table and holds it firmly. He doesn’t know how to tell Jungwoo he’s not being realistic, he doesn’t think he can tell him, not when there’s still hope left for him, he doesn’t want to crush that. 

“Fucking hell,” Jaemin curses, getting up without even having touched his food. “I’m leaving, this is useless.” 

Taeyong looks alarmed, this probably wasn’t his plan. “No, Jaemin, come on, let’s talk about it.”

“There’s nothing left to talk about,” Jaemin spits out. “I don’t trust _any_ of you and I don’t want anything to do with you until we’re out of here.” He walks towards the door and looks at the rest of his group expectantly. “You coming or what?” 

Renjun sighs before pushing his chair back. “I just hope someone will come looking for us soon,” he mumbles, joining Jaemin at the bottom of the stairs. 

Jisung and Yangyang follow them quietly. 

Doyoung groans inwardly. The people who need the most protecting don’t trust them anymore and there’s no way they’ll be able to change it. He feels like he’s failed them.

“Well that didn’t work out,” Ten comments, taking a bite from his lunch afterwards. “But it was to be expected, Jaemin is slowly going cray-cray.” 

“Shut the fuck up,” Doyoung hisses. “His best friend just died!”

“Oh, he has a voice! And he can use it, too,” Ten retorts, rolling his eyes. 

“Fuck you,” Jungwoo says loud and clear, his eyes burning with anger. Doyoung is shocked into silence, Jungwoo doesn’t usually swear nor is he someone to start a fight. 

“Calm down,” Ten scoffs. 

“I sure as hell won’t calm down! How fucking dare you?” he carries on, voice trembling as he’s trying to keep it down. 

“We’ve all lost multiple people, Jeno is nothing special, stop acting like he is!” Ten exclaims and something in Doyoung’s chest bursts. He feels like he’s about to spit fire, he’s never been this angry in his life.

He can’t speak, he’s so furious that sentences don’t seem to form in his head anymore. He wants to punch Ten in the face, he wants to _kill_ him. 

“That’s enough,” he hears Taeyong say, but Doyoung has already left the room. He has to get away from him, as far away as possible, otherwise he’s going to do something very, _very_ stupid. 

“You’re a fucking piece of shit, I hope you get killed next!” Jungwoo yells before leaving the room, too, following Doyoung upstairs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really sorry this took so long, I honestly have no excuse other than the fact that I had a big fat writing slump and wasn't motivated at all.
> 
> This was a rather short chapter, but I promise the next one is going to make up for it and I sincerely hope it won't take three weeks for us to finish again! 
> 
> Thank you for waiting!

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading!
> 
> Comments and feedback are greatly appreciated. We'd love to hear your thoughts and theories on who you think the killer is going to be.
> 
>  
> 
> my twitter: [x](https://twitter.com/rensungist)  
> my cc: [x](https://curiouscat.me/rensungist)
> 
> renjun_ah's twitter: [x](https://twitter.com/renjunieverse)  
> 


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